Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News At Ten 20171002

His brother expressed the familys disbelief. Were shocked, horrified, completely dumbfounded. At the white house, a silent tribute led by President Trump whod said earlier that the attack was an act of pure evil. Well have the latest from las vegas where police say they have no idea about the gunmans possible motives. Also tonight. 1800 staff at monarch are made redundant as the airline goes into administration, affecting thousands of customers, many of them abroad on holiday. After the disputed referendum in catalonia, politicians in madrid and barcelona are trying to work out their next steps after yesterdays violent scenes. At the conservative conferenc, the chancellor Philip Hammond strikes a note of caution about brexit, saying britain needs to proceed with care. And the mysteries of the body clock, revealed by three scientists awarded the nobel prize. And coming up in sportsday on bbc news, with philjones and fabian delph injured, tottenham midfielder harry winks gets the call up for the england squad. Good evening. At least 58 people have been killed and more than 500 injured in a mass shooting in las vegas, the worst of its kind in modern us history. The gunman was a 64 year old man living in a retirement village and unknown to the police. The shooting happened during an open air Music Festival attended by thousands of people. Shortly after 10pm local time, dozens of rounds were fired from the Mandalay Bay Hotel as the gunman took aim from the window of his room on the 32nd floor, where he was later found dead by police. Hes been named as Stephen Paddock, who lived in the state of nevada. Police say they have no idea about his possible motives. Lets join our correspondent james cook in las vegas for us tonight. What happened last night was in the area just in front of the Mandalay Bay Hotel which was turned from a concert venue bay hotel which was turned from a concert venue where bay hotel which was turned from a concert venue where people were enjoying the evening into a killing field. The mayor of this city has expressed horror at the attack and has been unable to attribute a motive to what she suggested might have been the work of a psychopath. The fbi says it has rolled out the involvement of what it calls International Terrorism but it is still not clear at all at this stage what drove Stephen Paddock, this a p pa re ntly what drove Stephen Paddock, this apparently retiring, older a ccou nta nt apparently retiring, older accountant who lived not far from here, to carry out this attack. Our first report tonight on the attack contains some distressing images i must warn you. In the cold nevada desert, Country Music is warming the crowd. The time is eight minutes past ten. The noise prompts confusion. The crowd, 22,000 strong, its uncertain. It takes a moment, a deadly moment, before they realise they are under attack. Gunfire by now a second round of bullets is raining down. There is a pause. The gunman is reloading again. He is high above them in a hotel. Panic follows, it is a scramble to live. There were people hiding underneath my carfor there were people hiding underneath my car for cover. There was a gentleman that was shot and he said, can you help me . I put him in my car andi can you help me . I put him in my car and i had six people in my car, people without shoes, running just to get away. We just hit the ground and just lay there and hung on each other. And it was quiet for a bit and then he fired another 30 rounds. And then quiet and then what we were doing was every time he stopped, he was reloading, we had gotten up and started making our way towards the fence and he would start shooting again and we would hit the ground. Gunfire by by now the music fans are frantic. If they can, they run, and, like this woman, they hide. We were sitting ducks and you could hear the bullets coming closer. And then it would get quiet and they would like reload. And then he would start going again and the girl that was standing right behind me, about two feet, she got shot in the stomach and everybody thought at first it was just firecrackers. And then itjust kept going more. We felt the shots and then we ran. To the hangar, to the airport. And we just kept running. It was. Once we got out the back, we started seeing the people that were shot and the people that were dead, and thats when it hit me that this was real. Within half an hour, officers know the gunman is in the hotel. Explosives ready, they prepared to go in. This Police Radio Recording ca ptu res go in. This Police Radio Recording captures the moment they stormed the room. Breach, breach, breach. By by now it is nearly midnight and the gunman is dead, apparently having killed himself. He left the city in chaos with hospitals overwhelmed and too few ambulances for more than 500 casualties. We need to get people to the hospital. But then all in the back. Hundreds of people remain in hospital where surgeons have been battling to save life after life. We had all hands on deck, eight or nine, surgeons alone in the facility, eight operating rooms rolling simultaneously. 0perating facility, eight operating rooms rolling simultaneously. Operating on patients doing what we refer to income at damage control, getting them on the table, stopping the piocess them on the table, stopping the process of them dying and stabilising them. As for the gunmen, he was Stephen Paddock, a 64 year old retired accountant from mesquite, one hourfrom the las vegas strip. He had checked into the hotel on thursday. As far as his history and background we have not completed that part of the investigation yet but we located numerous firearms in the room he occupied. For a western democracy, the United States has seen an astonishing amount of horror like this but even here this is carnage ona this but even here this is carnage on a different scale. James cook, bbc news, las vegas. As we heard, the man thought to be responsible for the attack was a 64 year old retired accountant called Stephen Paddock who lived in the city of mesquite, 80 miles from las vegas. He checked into the Mandalay Hotel last thursday. Police say he was not known to them and they have not identified any links to terrorist networks. 0ur correspondent laura bicker has been considering whats known about the gunman. Stephen paddock, a retired a ccou nta nt Stephen Paddock, a retired accountant and a high stakes gambler turned a Country Music concert into a killing field. He had been in his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel four days, waiting with a cache of rifles and automatic weapons. His family just cannot comprehend the horror of his crime. My brother did this, this is like it was done, like he shot us. If he had killed my kids i could not be more dumbfounded. It doesnt. Theres nothing. The last communication. I can show you the text, he said, hows mum . Where the hell did he get automatic weapons . He has no military background or anything like that. Like i said, he isa anything like that. Like i said, he is a guy who lived in a house in mesquite and drove down and gambled in las vegas. He did stuff, eating burritos. The 64yearold made few friends in his suburban retirement village in the quiet town of mesquite. Police found more guns and ammunition when they raided his home. What is unique for us is that the shooter and the person with him, we in the Mesquite Police department had not had any contact with these people in the past, no traffic stops, no Law Enforcement compact, arrest, nothing. He would disappear for days to nearby las vegas to gamble but also made money from rental properties and came across as odd to some of his tenants. He roamed around the apartment, he talked to you, always real casual and they showed his picture and i was shocked. He was a nice guy, strange but nice. The question is, what would lead a man with no criminal history, no known Strong Political views and no apparent motive to commit such relentless carnage . Stephen paddock has lived here for the last few years and yet nobody seems to know much about him. They say he was quiet and yetjust down the road at his house the garage is now wide open while the Police Search for any reason for him to commit such an atrocity. They are also looking for any link to the 19 guns they found in that hotel room. When it comes to his name, many people just dont want to say the name of the killer. To the police he isa name of the killer. To the police he is a lone wolf, a psychopath, to the president he is pure evil but when it comes to people here and to the victims, the only thing they want to know is why. Laura bicker with the latest. We can talk more about those injured. 0ur correspondent dave lee is at one of the hospitals where those injured in the shooting are being treated. What are the hospital authorities saying . The authorities at this trauma centre, the biggest in the area, most of the seriously injured came here and they took in over 104 of those 500 or so injured last night. They say that 40 were sent away and have been treated, 20 are in critical condition, eight people we re in critical condition, eight people were sent straight to the operating table to be looked after. And in this centre, four people who came here last night died and that is pa rt here last night died and that is part of the 58 overall in various trauma centres around the city who died. 0verall trauma centres around the city who died. Overall i think they are pleased with the First Response they have had here and there ability to keep some of those people alive at least. And queued for the update from the traumas and thank you for the update. The state of nevada has some of the most lenient gun laws in the United States. Firearms owners dont have to register their weapons and there is no limit on the number they can own. Some members of congress in washington dc have again underlined their deep regret that gun laws remain unaltered. 0ur north america editor, jon sopel, is at the white house tonight. During the 0bama era there became almost a wearily familiar ritual of the president coming out and offering commiserations to a family and with greater frustration calling for a tightening of the nations firearms law. Today for the first time donald trump has had to perform that ritual but notably from him there were plenty of condolences but no mention of gun control. In vegas last night terror, fear and mayhem. In the Nations Capital this afternoon, 2500 miles away a brooding, reflective silence. Bell tolls. There is shock as well as anguish, even though this country has been here so many times before. He brutally murdered more than 50 people and wounded hundreds more. It was an act of pure evil. In moments of tragedy and horror, america comes together as one and it always has. Until now, the worst shootings were the nightclub attack in orlando, where 0mar mateen killed 49 people in an act inspired by so called islamic state. And before that was the killings at Virginia Tech university, when 32 people were killed. But in terms of shock, surely nothing eclipses sandy hook in connecticut, when 20 children, aged between five and seven, and five teachers were killed at their Elementary School an act of brutality so shocking that it moved the then president to tears. They had their entire lives ahead of them. Birthdays, graduations, weddings. Kids of their own. Today, lawmakers from connecticut sought to reopen the age old debate on gun control, senator chris murphy saying, it is positively infuriating that my colleagues in congress are so afraid of the gun industry. Its time for congress to get off its ass and do something. But gun control is unlikely to go anywhere. The industry in america is huge, and its lobbying organisation has managed to see off any attempt at reform. Indeed, one of the ironies of previous Mass Shootings is that sales of weapons tend to increase as gun owners fear that new controls might be introduced. But that is unlikely to happen with President Trump, who has allied himself closely to the National Rifle association. As your president , i will never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Never, ever. Cheering. Its estimated there are as many private guns in circulation as there are people around 300 million. Around 30,000 people die each year in gun related incidents. That figure includes suicides, accidents and murders, which means, in the last year, four times as many people in the us died from guns than the total number of Coalition Forces killed in afghanistan and iraq during 16 years of war. In his address to the nation, donald trump said the American People would be seeking explanations, but the one issue he didnt touch upon was whether gun control could have played a part. The nra believes that the way you stop a bad man with a gun is to have a good man with a gun. But how that would have helped in the circumstances of las vegas last night is anyones guess. Jon sopel, bbc news, washington. Lets return to james cook in las vegas. Lots of talk today from some people about a city coming to terms with the horror of what happened last night. Surely that process will take a very long time. Yes, i agree with you. A better assessment at this stage would be that las vegas is reeling from the attack last night, still trying to come to terms with what happened. Its at a very early stage, as you suggest, of that process. What we have heard though, is individual acts of kindness and self sacrifice from people, lying on top of people on the ground to try top of people on the ground to try to save their lives. I spoke to people this morning who had survived. A woman said her daughter had been helped out by strangers who grabbed her, even though she was on the ground and being trampled, they made sure she got up. I also spoke to some british nurses, who were extremely distraught but determined to find a hospital where they could help. At the same time we are learning more about Stephen Paddock himself. A suggestion being reported now that his father was a former bank robber, once on the fbis most wa nted bank robber, once on the fbis most wanted list. Did that have anything to do with this . Who at this stage can say . The frantic scenes we saw last night, our becoming wearily familiar. A woman came across to me a short time ago very upset saying that something has to be done. Its not at all clear that anything will be. James cook, our correspondent in las vegas. We can move onto some of the dayother stories. More than 800,000 customers are affected by the collapse of monarch, britains fifth biggest airline, which went into administration overnight. Administrators say there is very little chance of selling the business as a whole and tonight they announced that nearly 2,000 workers have been made redundant. The caa has chartered more than 30 aircraft to bring home more than 100,000 customers from overseas, as our business editor, simon jack, reports. Grounded for good. Monarch waited for its 36 aircraft to be out of the air before putting an end to nearly 50 years of flying. One man was due to fly to the Canary Islands with 30 friends and family for a wedding, only to be told he would have to pay £400 each for alternative flights. Gutted, to be honest with you. I think its bang out of order. Theyve not even apologised. I think thats just disgusting. In manchester, passengers were equally stunned. Im still in shock, really, because weve just arrived only to find this out. This is the first weve heard. 0n arriving at the airport, we find out that theres a problem with the flight. Customers who booked atol protected Package Holidays should be able to claim back the cost, but most just bought flights with no atol cover. They are being told to try to claim through their card company or their travel insurance, but that may only cover those who picked Airline Failure as an optional extra. In cambridge, monarch employees gathered to share. Gonna miss you. And perhaps drown their sorrows. There were a lot of tears this morning. Very emotional at the administrators meeting this morning. But, yes, its one very big family. 110,000 passengers stranded abroad started arriving home today on specially chartered planes in peacetimes biggest repatriation, paid for by the government. What is the upfront cost . We wont know until the process is over exactly what the cost of doing this is. We are hiring aircraft. We are seeking to recover money through travel agents, through banks and credit card firms. My priority right now, today, is not the money, its actually the people who are stranded. So what went wrong . Some of monarchs most popular routes were hit by terror attacks in egypt and turkey. That led to intense competition for the rest of the med, and monarchs small size was a handicap, as was the referendum result. Company sources tell me the brexit vote had two important consequences. First, the regulatory uncertainty in the Aviation Industry it created scuppered plans to merge with other airlines. And secondly, theirfuel and aircraft leases are both priced in dollars, which are a lot more expensive after the fall in the value of the pound. Its been a gloomy autumn for travellers still reeling from massive cancellations by ryanair, who stand to benefit by having one less competitor and 400 pilots looking for a job. That will be little comfort for hundreds of thousands of passengers whose Holiday Plans have been thrown up in the air by the biggest failure in uk aviation history. Simonjack, bbc news, manchester. The leader of catalonia, carles puigdemont, says he wants a new understanding with the Spanish Government following yesterdays disputed referendum on independence. Spanish Officials Say the referendum was unlawful, but catalan Officials Say the result is valid and overwhelmingly in favour of independence. Mr puigdemont has called for the removal of all Spanish National police from catalonia, after hundreds of people were injured in violence at polling stations, but he also insisted he was not aiming for an abrupt split with spain. 0ur europe correspondent Damian Grammaticas is in barcelona tonight. As you were saying, tonight we do not know yet exactly when the leaders here in catalonia will push for a formal bid for independence following yesterdays a referendum. What we know and its clear, is their decision to hold the vote in defiance of the courts, and the Spanish Governments decision to sendin Spanish Governments decision to send in police to try to stop it from happening, have plunged this country of almost 50 million into a political crisis. What we saw today was the centre of barcelona full of people calling for a formal split from spain. Galvanised by what they see as the violence of the spanish state, hundreds took to the streets of barcelona today. Hands raised in silent protest. At the brutal tactics used by police trying to prevent sundays independence vote. We have no weapons. 0ur weapons are. This is our weapon. Words are oui weapon. Are. This is our weapon. Words are our weapon. Catalonia has a history of resisting the spanish state. Its little more than 40 years since spain wasa little more than 40 years since spain was a dictatorship. The danger for spain is that both sides are becoming ever more polarised. The government with its crackdown looks increasingly remote and heavy handed. But the catalan side with its tactics left the government with its tactics left the government with little choice than to believe it had to take action after what it sees as an illegal bid for independence. The independence leader, carles puigdemont, today called for european mediation and the withdrawal of riot police. But the withdrawal of riot police. But the spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy isnt backing down. His government is threatening to revoke catalonias autonomy if it tries to declare independence. This was the Police Response yesterday. Spains constitution forbids secession. The poll had been banned by the courts, so there could be more to come. But if anything, it may be hardening the resolve of 2 million who voted for independence yesterday. Do you think there is a way catalonia and spain can resolve this now peacefully to everyones satisfaction . can resolve this now peacefully to everyones satisfaction . I dont really think so. Peacefully . No. Catalonia, home to more than 7 million, is one of spains richest regions. Existing to language and outlook, but it has long felt ignored. And Pro Independence leaders tell people they will be better off without spain. So the cracks in spanish unity are widening. Firefighters applauded today. They tried to protect voters from the police. A general strike is planned tomorrow. Many looking on dont believe it will come to expect. I found these friends enjoying a beer. Seraphim says he believes only a third of people support independence. Sundays vote was inconclusive. Jose doesnt believe the promises a split would make people richer. But at the heart of spains political crisis, centrifugal forces that are hard to resist. The law the for catalans are taking greater control of their destiny. The lure for catalans. Earlier today, in brussels, the president of the european council, donald tusk, said hed spoken to the spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy. He said he agreed with mr rajoys view on the constitutional question raised by the referendum, but then went on to urge him to avoid measures which could escalate the crisis. 0ur europe editor katya adler is in brussels. This call by the Catalan Government for the eu to act as a kind of mediator. Is that likely to happen . Brussels has been clear it sees this as an internal spanish affair. It has appealed for no violence. What can we expect next from the spanish Prime Minister . Believe it or not, before this weekend, key held most of the cards. He had the law on his side, the majority of Public Opinion on his side. He knew the Political Parties of the catalonia for independence were fractious and disunited. No longer. Now they and most catalans, the majority of whom had said in polls before did not wa nt had said in polls before did not want independence from spain, are united in their fury against madrid. Could we potentially see another spanish civil war come as some suggest . I dont think so. But we are faced with two stubborn politicians. The spanish Prime Minister on the one side and the catalonian president on the other. They are walking back to back you like to the edge of a cliff, the worst constitutional crisis in spain ina worst constitutional crisis in spain in a generation. Cynics would point out that both men stands to gain from the crisis because they both face allegations of corruption and its a welcome distraction. They both know as opinion is on both sides, they will score political points with sympathisers if they appear to stand firm on the catalan question. Katya adler in brussels, oui question. Katya adler in brussels, our europe editor. The chancellor, Philip Hammond, has delievered a cautious message on brexit, telling the conservative Party Conference that withdrawing from the European Union will not be easy. He said there had to be government unity if britain was secure a deal that would be good forjobs and prosperity. He took aim at labours record on the economy, but the day also brought criticism from the british chambers of commerce, which said there was a lack of competence and coherence at the heart of government on brexit, as our Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg reports from manchester. You might not have thought theyd need the extra champagne this year. The fizz went flat for the tories after the election. Is austerity dead, chancellor . Before then, they hardly knew they would have to really take their enemies on. Now, if they are sure of one thing, its that with Jeremy Corbyn in the ascendancy, they need to fight. He is a clear and present danger to our prosperity. By abandoning market economics, corbyns labour has abandoned the aspirations of ordinary working people. We must be the party which picks them up and delivers on them. Attack after attack on labour and push back to those who suggest the way the country does business is done. Our economy is not broken, it is fundamentally strong. And while no one suggests a market economy is perfect, it is the best system yet designed for making people steadily better off over time and underpinning strong and Sustainable Public services for everyone. And with the governments differences over how we leave the eu, a barely masked plea. We must not downplay the difficulty nor underestimate the complexities. This will be one of the most challenging tasks ever undertaken by a peacetime government in this country. But with focus and determination and unity we will succeed. Applause. Who could he have been talking about . Go for it, boris the man who is the talk of the conference bars. The foreign secretary, who, whether he means it or not, after sharing rather too many of his views, is making his colleagues cross. My predecessorjust needs to keep his mouth shut. Would you have sacked him . I think he will be sacked by the public. But is the tories politicaljoker really that funny any more . Is he a good comedian . He is funnier than me but that aint hard the foreign secretary will be on the main stage here tomorrow, but today three of his cabinet colleagues have told me he cannot keep behaving as he is. But nor does number ten want to get rid of him. Its a problem for theresa may without an easy solution and that is the mood right across this conference the tories know broadly something is wrong but they dont agree on how to fix it. And even their natural supporters fear something is missing