Gunman kills 58 at Las Vegas country music festival

Firing down at crowds attending the Route 91 Harvest open-air music festival from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, the shooter was later identified by police as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock.

Paddock, a resident of nearby Mesquite, Nevada, was eventually shot and killed by Clark County police who described the shooting as a "lone wolf" style attack.

However, police also sought out Paddocks's alleged companion, a female named as Marilou Danely, for questioning.

As Paddock’s home was being searched in Mesquite, local police said he had no criminal record whatsoever: “We don’t have a lot on Mr Paddock. He does live here in our city. We have not had any law enforcement contact with him in the past.”

Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, who said several firearms were found in Paddock's room at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, said the motive of the attack was unclear and that Paddock was not believed to be connected to any militant group.

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

Lombardo said there were "in excess of 50" deaths, later confirming 58 people had been confirmed killed, which tops the 49 murdered in the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016 and makes the Las Vegas attack the most deadly in the last century.

Country singer Jake Owen, who was just off stage at the at the music festival when the shooting began, said "gun shots were ringing off of the stage rigging and road cases. No one knew where to go."

“It got faster and faster, almost like it sounded like it was an automatic rifle. You could hear it ringing off the tops of the rafters of the stage,” he told the Today show on NBC. “That’s when you saw people fleeing. At that point, everyone on stage just started running everywhere possible. It was pretty chaotic for sure.”