Police have named Stephen Paddock as the suspected gunman who killed at least 50 people and hospitalised more than 400 others at a Las Vegas concert.

The 64-year-old, of Mesquite, Nevada, sprayed bullets at music-lovers as a gig by country singer Jason Aldean was ending on Sunday night, said officers.

The suspect opened fire from a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.

Paddock killed himself at the scene as officers closed in.

It is the deadliest shooting in modern US history, with the death toll surpassing the 49 killed at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in June 2016.

Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said investigators found “in excess of 10 rifles” in the hotel room that Paddock checked into on 28 September.

“We have no idea what his belief system was,” Sheriff Lombardo added. “Right now, we believe he was the sole aggressor and the scene is static.”

The sheriff said the attack was not related to terrorism.

He described the suspect as a “distraught person intending to cause mass casualties”, adding that he killed himself as police approached the hotel room.

Audio recorded at the concert appears to suggest that Paddock used an automatic rifle in the attack on the crowd of 22,000 people.

He had no prior “derogatory” interactions with police, said Sheriff Lombardo, except for one citation several years ago which the sheriff declined to specify.

Investigators have entered his home, which is part of a retirement community about one hour from Las Vegas, and are searching for evidence.







Authorities earlier appealed for help in locating Paddock’s roommate, Marilou Danley.

But investigators later said she had been interviewed, and was “no longer being sought out as a person of interest”.

Ms Danley was not with him when he checked into Mandalay, officers said.

My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2017

Investigators said she had been traced outside of the US.

They said Paddock “was utilising some of her identification”.

Eric Paddock, the brother of the suspect, described her as the gunman’s “girlfriend”.

“We are completely dumbfounded,” he told WOFL-Channel 35. “We can’t understand what happened.”

My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2017

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