Two country singers on the bill at the Route 91 Harvest Festival have described a scene of terror that felt like a "war zone" as a shooter in a Las Vegas hotel rained gunfire down on thousands of music fans, killing 58 people and injuring at least 500.
Country singer Tyler Reeve says he was backstage when a volley of shots rang out Sunday night during a performance by Jason Aldean. He and other singers took cover in a trailer while bullets struck tour buses, equipment cases and the stage.
"I don't think many people realized right away what it was, but right when I heard it, I grabbed my buddy that was next to me and started running toward a production trailer," Reeve told The Associated Press in a phone interview Monday from Las Vegas.
Reeve and others lay down on the trailer floor and turned all the lights off.
"As we were lying in this trailer, I was thinking, 'This can't really be happening,' and it just went on and on. I can't even describe the feeling, just absolute terror," Reeve said.
“It was just shoes and clothing and blood and bodies,” Reeve said. “It was a war zone.”
Dylan Schneider, another singer who also performed Sunday, says he was watching Aldean's performance near the front of the stage when he heard what he initially thought were fireworks. But as the shooting continued he and his manager started ran for cover under nearby bleachers.
"On top of the bleachers all you heard was banging," Schneider said in a phone interview Monday from Las Vegas. "People running around and everybody screaming."
He said the crowd scattered in all directions, unsure of where the gunfire was coming from.
"No one knew what to do," he said. "It was literally running for your life and you don't know what decision is the right one."
21-year-old Taylor Benge told CNN that his sister threw herself on top of him telling him she loves him. The two escaped but said that “no matter which direction you went in, no matter where you took cover, there was at least two to three bodies that were a part of it and you didn't know where you were safe”.
Corinne Lomas who was near the stage told CNN that “people started dropping like flies”, whether they were alive or not.
Gail Davis, another witness told CBS when the shooting started most people thought it was firecrackers but it kept going on.
I looked over to my right where this girl had been standing right beside me, and she had fallen…and her hands were bloody, and she just kind of screamed and she just fell back.
(With inputs from AP, CNN and CBS)
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