Shock and devastation as the deadliest massacre in modern U.S. history unfolded at a concert Sunday night in Las Vegas.
The death toll has now climbed to 59 people, two have been confirmed to be Canadians from British Columbia and Alberta.
READ MORE: Moose Jaw couple describes horror of Las Vegas shooting
Another 527 were injured during the mass shooting as the gunman opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
Saskatchewan residents who were in attendance say the fun-filled evening quickly turned into a scene of horror and initially thought the sound of gunfire were fireworks going off.
“Everybody ducked and literally you could hear bullets everywhere – on the stage, in the bleachers and it just keep sounding like everything like was getting closer and closer and closer,” said Janelle Balaski, who is from Saskatoon.
Carla Unser, of Moose Jaw, Sask., said at one point her husband laid on top of her and a friend to shield them from bullets.
“They told us all to get down really low so we just got down really low, it was the scariest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
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Chaos and panic erupted as the moments passed.
“When the first bullets came you could see what looked like smoke from fireworks and it was literally feet away from us,” Balaski said.
“You just heard screaming.”
Unser said earlier in the night the trio felt perfectly safe, sitting ten rows back from the stage and thought the popping sound was something orchestrated by the band.
“There was people all around us getting shot, you could hear it and you could see it.”
At some point they all ran for their lives.
The shooter, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock of Nevada killed himself before the SWAT team burst into his hotel room.
READ MORE: Las Vegas shooting: Gunman’s brother ‘completely dumbfounded’ after attack
“This is a crazed lunatic full of hate, we don’t know much about his background but it’s certainly not an extension of what we believe, what everybody who lives here, works here and visits here want to see,” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said.
Why Stephen Paddock did this is something one terrorism expert from Saskatoon said we may never know.
“What we’re seeing with some acts of terrorism or political violence these days is they’re less structured,” said Colleen Bell, with the University of Saskatchewan.
“Meaning we don’t find a clear manifesto, we don’t necessarily have a person make a clear declaration prior to their act that is easy to locate.”
Whether this was politically motivated will be something agencies will be attempting to unearth in the days and weeks to come.
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