Las Vegas shooting sees hero British soldiers help treat the wounded – as ‘servicemen’ plugged bullet holes with their fingers
WITNESSES described the terror, chaos and bloodshed as bullets rained down on a country music festival crowd in Las Vegas.
Russell Bleck was with his partner in a VIP tent when a gunman opened fire from the nearby Mandalay Bay Hotel.
“I saw a lot of ex-military jump into gear and start plugging bullet-holes with their fingers.
“While everyone else was crouching I saw police officers standing up as targets, just trying to direct people and tell them where to go.
“The amount of bravery I saw there, words can’t describe what it was like.” He added: “It was an automatic rifle, without a doubt. I saw people dropping left and right.
“I couldn’t tell what direction the shots were coming from. They were echoing around the area, so nobody knew where to go.
The Army tonight confirmed initial reports that the trio tended the injured and assisted emergency services after the “heinous” shooting.
At least 59 people were killed in the deadliest mass shooting in US history when gun maniac Stephen Paddock opened fire on country music fans from his hotel room.
Paddock was a retired accountant who flew small planes and had no criminal record, authorities said.
Horrifying video shows blood-soaked concert-goers running in terror from the Route 91 country music festival after hundreds of rounds were fired from the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort Casino.
Some 527 people were also rushed to hospital after the shooting.
The injured were ferried to safety by heroic bystanders using anything they could get their hands on.
Witnesses told how people used office chairs and wheelbarrows to get people to trucks and whisk them off to nearby hospitals.
“People were running away without knowing if it was safe. It was chaos and carnage.
“There was only one way in and one way out — and the gunman had that bottlenecked.”
While others were running and screaming, some festival-goers defied the gunman with rude hand gestures. One member of the crowd was snapped showing the maniac his middle finger amid the carnage.
A British survivor told how she threw herself to the ground to dodge the bullets.
Holiday rep Samantha Evans said she looked on in horror as a security guard was shot just feet from where she had been standing.
Samantha, 36, said: “At first I thought it was fireworks but then I heard screams as people were shot.
“We all ducked down as low as we could, I was on the floor.”
Samantha had taken her mum Charley Wilson to the gig as a 60th birthday treat.
The pair had been clapping along to headline star Jason Aldean. Charley was sitting on her mobility scooter along with 30 other disabled people on a raised platform for a better view.
Samantha said: “There was a sudden wave of panic and we realised everyone was being shot at.
“My mum was freaking out. It was a raised area and more exposed.
“The gunfire sounded really close, we ducked down and prayed.”
The pair found themselves trapped inside the arena by metal security gates.
But people outside attached tow ropes to the bars and used their cars to pull them down.
Samantha said: "The Americans all around us were brilliant.”
The pair took refuge in an aircraft hangar out of the line of fire and were joined by dozens of other panic-stricken music fans. Samantha added: “By the time the police got to us there were about 200 of us hiding in there.”
Mike McGarry, a 53-year-old financial adviser from Philadelphia, said: "It was crazy — I laid on top of the kids. They’re 20. I'm 53. I’ve lived a good life.”
The back of his shirt was covered with footprints where people in the panicked crowd ran over him.
Last night details of the first victims emerged.
Nurse Sonny Melton, 29, from Tennessee, died protecting his wife Heather.
She told how he grabbed her hand and started running when he heard the gunshots — but he was then blasted in the back.
Heather, an orthopaedic surgeon, said: “I’m in complete disbelief and despair.
“He saved my life and lost his.”
Others who died in the slaughter included Sandy Casey, a school teacher from Manhattan Beach, California, and student Quinton Robbins, 20, from Nevada, who had been on a date with his girlfriend.
Fisherman Adrian Murfitt, 35, died in his best pal’s arms after being shot through the neck.
Adrian, from Anchorage, Alaska, was at the gig with friends and had uploaded a selfie to Facebook earlier in the day.
At least two Canadians were among at least 58 who were killed, including mechanic’s apprentice Jordan McIldoon, 23.
Grieving Al and Angela McIldoon told CBC News: “We only had one child. We just don’t know what to do.”
The couple said their son was there with his girlfriend.
Politician Rachel Notley, Premier of Canadian province Alberta, said local Jessica Klymchuk was also killed.
Rachael Parker, a police records technician, was shot and died in the hospital.
She was one of four Manhattan Beach Police Department staff at the event while off-duty.
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