It's not clear why Stephen Paddock took a whole arsenal of weapons to a Las Vegas hotel and used them to kill at least 59 people and injure hundreds more. But internet conspiracists believe they may know the answer.

Police have admitted they have no clue as to why Paddock carried out the attack, or if it was in service of any higher goal.

“We have no idea what his belief system was,” Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters. “I can't get into the mind of a psychopath.”

Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Las Vegas shooting – in pictures People scramble for shelter at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gun fire was heard Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures People carry a person at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after shots were fired David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gun fire was heard David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures A handout photo released via Twitter by Eiki Hrafnsson (@EirikurH) showing concertgoers running away from the scene (C) after shots range out at the Route 91 Harvest festival on Las Vegas Boulevard EPA/Eiki Hrafnsson Las Vegas shooting – in pictures People lie on the ground at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gun fire Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures A man in a wheelchair is taken away from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gun fire David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures People stand on the street outside the Mandalay Bay hotel near the scene of the Route 91 Harvest festival on Las Vegas Boulevard EPA/Paul Buck Las Vegas shooting – in pictures FBI agents confer in front of the Tropicana hotel-casino after a mass shooting during a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Las Vegas police run by a banner on the fence at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival grounds after shots were fired David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures An injured person is tended to in the intersection of Tropicana Ave. and Las Vegas Boulevard after a mass shooting at a country music festival Ethan Miller/Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Metro Police officers pass by the front of the Tropicana hotel-casino after a mass shooting at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus Las Vegas shooting – in pictures A woman sits on a curb at the scene of a shooting outside of a music festival along the Las Vegas Strip AP/John Locher Las Vegas shooting – in pictures A cowboy hat lays in the street after shots were fired near a country music festival in Las Vegas Getty Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Las Vegas Metro Police and medical workers stage in the intersection of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard South after a mass shooting at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus Las Vegas shooting – in pictures Sheriff Joe Lombardo (2-R) speaking during a press briefing in the aftermath of the active shooter incident on Las Vegas Boulevard EPA

But into that gap have rushed online conspiracy theorists, eager to prove that they know the justification behind the massacre. Some admit that they don't know the truth but that they believe there is more to the story than is public – while others go as far as to suggest that they have found the real reason the attack happened.

US radio host and former senator Joe Walsh, for instance, simply suggested that something was being hidden about the story or that what official explanations there have been were wrong.

Another report in the conservative National Review was posted under the headline "Based on the Early Reports, the Las Vegas Shooting Is Very, Very Strange". It went on to ask questions about how Paddock had got hold of his huge cache of weapons, the fact that his father was also involved in a violent incident in Las Vegas, and a potential connection to Isis.

Other reports questions whether there was more than one shooter during the attack. Though there were initial reports that there could be more than one gunman, those appear to have been the result of the confusion during the attack, and videos circulating online that claim to "prove" there was more than one shooter appear to be identifying an illusion caused by echoes.

But people including Infowars boss and TV host Alex Jones suggested that Paddock had committed the atrocity because he was both a leftist and a jihadist. He said that he was "just like so many others that had converted to Islam, that was so angry about Trump and everything that was happening that he went out and carried out this attack" in a long ranting video.

He also suggested that the attack was connected to the release of OJ Simpson from a Nevada prison, just days before. The timing was helpful because it meant that the news media would be in the state and ready to ensure that the massacre got the most possible attention, he suggested.

Las Vegas shooting: Who is gunman Stephen Paddock?

He also suggested that the attack was linked to a broader theory about 2017 being the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, and his claims that leftist groups would commemorate it with terror attacks. "Now, again, clearly it looks like he had help, but we saw the October 1st event of the 100 years of the Bolshevik Revolution coming up, and I had been predicting starting October 1st that we'd see terror attacks," he said on the TV show Real News with David Knight.

Isis has claimed responsibility for the shooting, but experts have cast doubt on the suggestion. There has been no indication of the killer's political views, or any real indication that the anniversary of the Russian Revolution could be marked with violence.