Worst US attack since 9/11: Music, lights, gunfire at Orlando nightclub

It was a Saturday night at the Pulse nightclub, which could mean only one thing: a raucous, high-spirited celebration that would not end until the small hours. Strobe lights flashed and music blared at the popular lounge, home to one of the hottest party scenes in Florida — and where 50 people died and 53 were injured in the country’s worst mass shooting.

Just a few days earlier, Orlando’s vibrant LGBT community had marked the annual Gay Days celebration, one of the biggest events anywhere in the United States dedicated to gay pride. The partying was to go on at Pulse, a club known for its drag shows and one of several gay-friendly establishments in downtown Orlando’s vibrant club scene.

US anti-terror strategy was under new scrutiny after the gunman, previously cleared of jihadist ties, launched a hate-fueled rampage in a Florida gay club. As the worst mass shooting in modern US history erupted on Sunday, Orlando police blasted their way into the Pulse nightspot and shot the attacker dead.

The murderous assault triggered grief but also defiance in the gay and lesbian community, and more than 100,000 marched in a planned Los Angeles Gay Pride parade. In New York, the Tony Awards for musical theatre went ahead as planned but were dedicated to the victims of the massacre.

“We know enough to say that this was an act of terror and an act of hate,” President Barack Obama said, as the FBI investigated the shooter. Prominent US Muslim figures, Pope Francis and world leaders condemned the attack, which is being treated as the worst act of terror on US soil since 11 September, 2001.

The FBI admitted that 29-year-old Omar Mateen had previously been investigated — but cleared — for ties to a US suicide bomber. Special Agent Ronald Hopper also said Mateen was reported to have made a 911 call pledging allegiance to IS shortly before the massacre.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State-linked news agency Amaq said without providing evidence that one of its fighters carried out the attack. But the group, which has previously been a conduit for Islamic State statements cited only “a source,” leading experts to doubt the claim.

Terrified survivors described how the gunman raked club-goers with bullets, prompting a police SWAT team to storm the venue. Mateen was born to Afghan parents in New York in 1986 and lived in Port St Lucie, Florida, about a two hour drive from Orlando. His father Mir Seddique told NBC News his son may have been motivated by homophobia, insisting: “This had nothing to do with religion.”

“Tonight 21 and up is FREEEEEEEE before 11 pm,” Kenya Michaels, a well-known Puerto Rican drag queen who was slated to perform at the club, posted on Facebook earlier Saturday.

“Come see me show time at 12 am at Pulse Orlando Doors open at 9 pm. My sister Jasmine international is performing with me,” posted Michaels – who escaped the shooting unharmed.

Scores of people turned out for the show: A contest of dancing, lip-synching drag queens took the floor one by one, showing their best dance moves, sashaying in high heels, as patrons laughed, nursed their cocktails, tossed dollar bills onto the stage.

One dancer with swiveling hips and a Beyonce-like mane slinked around podium, as video footage posted online on Periscope captured the revelry.

Sound like drumbeats

A crowd of patrons thronged the area just off-stage, drinking and partying, amid a crescendo of laughter. Then, at around 2 am, with the party in full gear, barely discernible under the cheers and the throbbing music, were the sounds of what one reveler said sounded like drumbeats.

Christopher Hanson said at first he thought the loud, rhythmic sounds were part of the music “until you heard too many shots. It was like, bang, bang, bang, bang.” “I just saw bodies going down and I was ordering a drink at the bar. I fell down. I crawled out. People were trying to escape out the back,” he told CNN, adding that he didn’t see the shooter.

“When I got across the street, there were people — blood everywhere.” The management of the Pulse club, grasping the gravity of the situation, quickly posted an emergency warning on its Facebook page.

“Everyone get out of Pulse and keep running,” it wrote. The carnage was so unthinkable that patrons couldn’t make sense of it, even as they watched their friends and loved ones falling all around them.

“It was like complete chaos. If I can relate it to anything, I would say it was like a scene out of a movie,” Janiel Gonzalez told AFP. “People were screaming ‘Help me, help me, I’m trapped’. And people were getting trampled. There was no clear exit sign at the club, so we didn’t know which door to take or where to go.”

Club-goers – who just minutes earlier were dancing without a care in the world — suddenly were simply trying to escape with their lives. Some told US media they were able to crawl out of the front of the establishment. Others ran out the back, while still others scrambled out of windows.

Many, however, did not make it out, including some who reportedly sought shelter in club’s bathroom.

‘I’m trapped’

Witness Janiel Gonzalez described scenes of mayhem as the gunman sprayed revelers with bullets.

“It was like complete chaos,” he told AFP. “It was like a scene out of a movie. People were screaming ‘Help me, help me, I’m trapped.’” “People were getting trampled. There was no clear exit sign at the club, so we didn’t know which door to take or where to go. The massacre – which coincided with Gay Pride month in the United States — cast a long shadow over the parade in Los Angeles.

Chillingly, a man was arrested in nearby Santa Monica with weapons and explosives in his car. Police said he had no known connection to the Orlando bloodshed.

‘We’re looking for him’

The shooting eventually became a hostage situation after the gunman barricaded himself in the club with scores of captive patrons. The standoff would not be resolved until more than three hours later, when police used an armored vehicle to ram down part of the building, eventually killing the gunman in a hail of bullets.

About 300 relatives had gathered Sunday afternoon in a hotel behind the Orlando hospital where most of the victims had been taken. The family members, many of them Hispanic, were hugging, crying and checking their phones for news in the packed lobby.

Angel Mendez, who was outside the hospital, held up his phone and showed a reporter a photo of his brother.

“He was inside the club, we’re very desperate,” he said. “We’re looking for him, this is something that has taken Florida by surprise but we know there is a God that can have control over this family.” Gonzalez said he was still looking for three friends, while two were hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

“A place that we normally go to just to hang out, have fun, dance and normally there’s no issues, for something like that to happen is just devastating,” he said.

FBI probe

The suspect’s ex-wife, who divorced him in 2011, told reporters he had been violently abusive to her but was not especially religious. But the FBI’s Hopper told reporters Mateen’s behaviour had raised red flags well before Sunday’s attack.

In 2013, he was probed by the bureau after making inflammatory comments to co-workers that suggested terrorist ties. Later, in 2014, he was again questioned by agents investigating his contacts with Moner Mohammad Abusalha, a fellow Floridian. Abusalha became notorious as the first US citizen to carry out a suicide bombing in Syria, and was reportedly a member of an Al-Qaeda affiliate.

“We determined the contact was minimal and did not constitute a substantive relationship or a threat at that time,” Hopper said. The Orlando atrocity came at the height of what is already a heated US presidential election campaign, and the main candidates were quick to react.

Hostage rescue

Democratic flag-bearer Hillary Clinton postponed a joint campaign rally with Obama and tweeted that her “thoughts are with those affected by this horrific act.” Her Republican rival Donald Trump, meanwhile, lost no time in claiming the attack proved he was right to promise a ban on Muslims entering the US.

Trump demanded Obama resign for failing to publicly blame the massacre on “radical Islam,” and vowed to make a speech on security policy Monday. “If we do not get tough and smart real fast, we are not going to have a country anymore,” Trump declared.

Events at Pulse unfolded over a three hour period from around 2:00 am (0600 GMT) when shots rang out amid the throbbing music. Police said the gunman was armed with an assault rifle and a handgun.

A policeman working “extra duties” at the club responded and two other officers exchanged fire with the suspect. Police stormed the venue after the suspect fell back inside, and broke through a wall with a wheeled armored vehicle known as a BearCat.

It was unclear whether all the victims were killed by the gunman or if some died in crossfire during the assault to rescue his hostages.

With inputs from AFP