Philippines condoles with Las Vegas shooting victims

No Filipinos reported hurt in mass shooting

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has expressed its sympathies to the United States and to the families of the more than 50 killed in a mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A 64-year-old gunman opened fire in a crowd of 22,000 country music fans, killing 59 people and leaving 530 injured in the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

"We mourn with the families of those who perished and hope for the speedy recovery of the more than 500 people who were reported injured. Our thoughts and prayers are with the American people today," Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said in a statement from New York.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles has not received any report of Filipino casualties in the incident.

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The consulate, however, has sent a team to check whether there were any Filipinos among the victims.

Cayetano has instructed Consul General Adelio Angelito Cruz to proceed to Las Vegas to look into the condition of about 130,000 members of the Filipino community in the popular tourist destination.

"We are coordinating with Las Vegas police authorities and with leaders of the Filipino Community to check on our kababayans there," Cruz said.

On reports that a certain Marylou Danley, one of the persons of interest, was among the victims of the shooting, the DFA said that there is no official confirmation yet on her nationality.

"She was reported to have been in [the Philippines] at the time of the incident but there are unconfirmed reports that she is no longer in [the Philippines] at this time," DFA spokesperson Rob Bolivar said.

Bolivar added that Danley is no longer a person of interest in the investigation as she was not in the US at the time of the incident.

Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said investigators found 18 firearms, explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition in the home of shooter Stephen Craig Paddock in Mesquite, Nevada.

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