'We thought it was fireworks': Mandalay Bay casino attack witnesses describe the moment a gunman opened fire 

People dive for cover at Route 91 Harvest country music festival
People dive for cover at Route 91 Harvest country music festival Credit: David Becker/Getty Images

Witnesses to the Las Vegas shooting at a country music concert reported they thought the noise of the gunshots were fireworks, before they realised the terrible truth and ran for cover.

Concert-goers reported country singer Jason Aldean was playing towards the end of the concert when the sound of gunfire rang around the arena.

People at the scene reported seeing flashes from the upper floors of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.

Kodiak Yazzi, 36, told AP that he and his girlfriend were watching the concert when they heard what they thought was fireworks.

However, terrified revelers ran for cover en masse when they realised that there was a gunman aiming at the crowd.

Mr Yazzi said the music stopped for a moment and started up again, before the noise began again and the performers ducked for cover and fled the stage.

Witnesses reported multiple victims as some of the 40,000 fans in the crowd started to run for their lives from the open-air concert venue.

Some of these found shelter in the basement of the nearby Tropicana hotel and casino.

Police officers were seen taking cover behind their vehicles while others carrying assault rifles ran into the Mandalay Bay.

One witness told ABC: "I was at the concert there and Jason Aldean was playing, it kind of sounded like some fireworks going off.

"I think there was the first volley, and in the second volley my buddy was like 'I just got hit', got hit three times, and people started diving for the ground and it was pretty much chaotic.

"Lots of people got hit, it took a while to get them out, we got to get them over the fence and hiding under the stage for a while to be safe.

"Finally we had to move him because we had three chest wounds. Finally we got them out here, we got four people in the back of a truck but we had to turn them around because there was an active shooter.

"We finally got an ambulance right across the street here, we got two of the guys in, one guy ended up dying in my arms. My buddy got in there and we got three more people in the ambulance.

"I just got a message from my buddy and he's going to be OK".

Mr Yazzi said the gunfire would start and stop for more than five minutes, and that he ran for safety past dozens of ambulances, getting a Lyft driver to take him safely home.

One witness told KSNV-TV that he heard "clip after clip after clip - bullets flying everywhere".

Another witness told Fox News: "I heard what sounded like gunfire, and then people on stage started scrambling and everybody just kind of ran from that point.

"I stayed local in the concert venue, hid behind a little table, until everybody cleared and then I went out and there were a couple of bodies there and I started loading them into the back of a truck. 

"One of them looked like she was probably dead, the other two, I'm not sure".

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