Las Vegas casinos dim lights for 11 minutes to honour victims of Stephen Paddock's shooting

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday

Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Hotels and casinos along Las Vegas’ famous strip dimmed their lights on Sunday night in memory of the victims of last week’s mass shooting.

The exterior lights were put out for 11 minutes from 10:05 until 10:16 p.m, the exact time and duration of the gunfire one week ago, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said in a statement.

The mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival was the deadliest in US history. The attacker, Stephen Paddock, killed 58 victims and injured hundreds more — 34 of which remain in hospital in a critical condition.

Paddock’s motive remains unclear, as he left behind no suicide note, no manifesto, no recordings and no messages on social media.

“We still do not have a clear motive or reason”, Clark County undersheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters on Friday.

Paddock had stockpiled weapons in his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in the days leading up to the attack.

He used a device known as a bump stock to make 12 of his rifles operate more like automatic weapons.

On Sunday, the powerful US gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, said it would oppose an outright ban on bump-stock devices.

The Red Cross has established a family assistance centre in the city to support the survivors and their loved ones.

"A week into this, a lot of people have been numb," said Red Cross spokesman Bill Fortune, who flew in from Colorado to help with the recovery effort.

"Some of those emotional crises are just showing up today, where people can't get out of bed. People have called saying they can't be in crowds."

The process of returning items left behind by those who fled in the chaos could take weeks, authorities said.

So many phones, backpacks, lawn chairs and other items were left behind that the FBI has divided the huge crime scene into four quadrants, releasing items from only one of them at a time, FBI Victims Services chief Paul Flood said.

Before release, the items had to be cleaned of blood and other substances, as well as categorised, Mr Flood said. Property from just one quadrant of the scene filled seven delivery-sized trucks, he said, and required the attention of dozens of investigators.