(Picture: Seddique Mateen/Facebook)

The father of the man who shot dead 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando says the attack could have been prevented if there had been better security.

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Omar Mateen, 29, opened fire with an AR-15 assault rifle in a gay club in the early hours of Sunday morning. It was the worst mass shooting in US history. Forty-nine people were killed and 53 others injured.

Now Seddique Mateen, the killer’s father, has told Sky News that the shooting may not have happened had the club had ‘good security’.

‘The club, (with) 300 or 400 people … coming – they should have good security. If there was good security, he wouldn’t have had this opportunity,’ he said.


Omar Mateen

‘Why the law enforcement team was so late – they should have neutralised him quick … This should not have happened.

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‘Obviously if (the club) had that kind of experience, they should have had better security and after this any club should have security.’



Mr Mateen has denied his son, into whose motives American security forces are looking, was radicalised and says he ‘didn’t see any obvious’ signs his son held prejudices against the LGBT community.

He has said that if he ‘knew and noticed something wrong… I would have called the law enforcement.’

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