US officials have said there is no evidence that the man who committed the worst mass-shooting in modern US history was a member of Islamic State (IS), despite the militant group claiming responsibility for the attack in Las Vegas.
“The Las Vegas attack was carried out by a soldier of the Islamic State and he carried it out in response to calls to target states of the coalition,” the group’s news agency Amaq said in reference to the US-led coalition fighting the group in the Middle East.
“The Las Vegas attacker converted to Islam a few months ago,” Amaq added.
The terror group provided no evidence for the claim.
According to the Reuters news agency, officials have said there is nothing to corroborate the claim, though one official said security agencies were examining an Islamic State claim of responsibility - even though there was nothing to verify the claim,
One US official said there was reason to believe that the shooter, whom police identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, had a history of psychological problems.
As with previous claims from IS, the claim was also made in a tweet from an account that has since been suspended.
Las Vegas officials have been on high alert for a number of months since the city was featured in an Islamic State propaganda video along with New York and Washington DC.
Stephen Paddock has been named as the gunman who opened fire at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the city’s strip at about 10.20pm on Sunday local time (6.20am Monday BST).
The mass shooting is the worst in US history, surpassing the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando where 49 people were gunned down last year.
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