Las Vegas police officers have recalled the “deadly game of hide and seek” they faced before storming gunman Stephen Paddock’s hotel room.

The ad-hoc SWAT team swooped on Paddock’s Mandalay Bay room within 12 minutes of the 64-year-old unleashing a torrent of gunfire onto the outdoor Route 91 Harvest country music festival, killing 58 and injuring 489.

They revealed how Paddock had barricaded shut a stairwell door on the 32nd floor of the hotel by screwing a piece of metal across it to prevent officers from reaching him and had also set up surveillance cameras outside his room.

The first officers at the scene initially believed they could be dealing with multiple gunmen and also feared the room might have been booby-trapped, they told CBS News.

“There's a room service cart with wires going on it underneath the door. There was something black on top of the cart. So initially I'm, you know, I'm thinking, ‘This is a booby-trap. It's gonna explode’,” explained Officer Dave Newton.

“It turned out to be cameras on the food tray,” he said.