Heroes! British troops rushed to help wounded
BRITISH troops on leave in Las Vegas rushed to the aid of those wounded in the carnage, it emerged last night.
Three soldiers from 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards were in the city and arrived at the scene in minutes to give first aid and prioritise casualties for US paramedics.
The Welsh cavalry regiment was in Nevada for desert training, the Army confirmed. The hero troops, who were in civilian clothing at the time, have not been named.
Festival-goers and medics risked their lives cramming the injured in their cars or even wheelbarrowing them away from the stream of bullets.
Many people clambered over bodies to escape, but officials said others ran towards the bullets to save the wounded and check bodies that appeared lifeless to see whether they could be saved.
Former minor league baseball player Todd Blyleven was at the concert with family and friends when the bullets began ripping through the crowd.
Mr Blyleven said he and his brother-in-law ushered those close to them to safety, dodging behind food and merchandise carts to avoid the bullets.
Then he risked his life again, darting back to get more people out. Among up to 40 people he tried to help, he found a police officer who was shot in the neck and carried out the body of a lifeless woman. He said: ‘Young girls and guys, older folks – just people walking out of a country concert with bullet holes. Everybody was just trying to do whatever they could to get these poor people out of the gunfire.
‘I just felt like I had to. I would hope that if me, or my family, was in a situation like that, that someone would come in and get me.’
Other images show desperate paramedics using a wheelbar- row to try to get an injured man away from danger.
One woman said she rushed to her car to flee, but found others hiding under it.
She told CNN she unlocked it and let them all in to protect them, adding: ‘Everyone was literally lying on top of each other, trying to get out of the way and the shots just kept coming. There was a man that was shot – he was all bloody, unconscious. One of my friends was helping him out and they got him out and we ran.
‘Everybody is hiding everywhere, they are hiding under the stands and anywhere they could. Everyone is telling us to run, run as fast as you can. My husband and I ran out towards our car and there were people hiding underneath.
‘There was a gentleman who was shot. He said, “Can you help me?”, so I put him in my car and I had six people in my car, people without shoes, running, just to get away.’
When concert- goer Mike McGarry, 53, realised what was happening, he threw himself over his two children.
Mr McGarry, a financial advisor from Philadelphia, said: ‘It was crazy – I laid on top of the kids. They’re 20. I’m 53. I lived a good life.’
When he finally stood up, his shirt was covered with the shoe prints of those who had trampled over him.
A video posted online shows a person hail down a passing vehicle, telling the driver: ‘Hey bud, right now, we need your truck. We just need to get people over to the hospital.’
The driver said: ‘Put them all in the back.’
One woman revealed she hid in a sewer to escape the bullets. Ivetta Saldana told local media: ‘It was a horror show. People were standing around – then they hit the floor.’
Jessica Perez, 21, was in bed at home when she heard about the shooting and within an hour had loaded her car up with water for survivors.
University Medical Centre in Las Vegas was overwhelmed with patients filling the corridors waiting to be seen.
Jay Coates, one of eight trauma surgeons called in, told the Las Vegas Review- Journal: ‘It was like a war zone. Every bed in trauma bay was occupied. People were lined up in hallways for procedures.’
Following urgent calls for blood donations, there was said to be a six-hour queue to give blood at one clinic.
‘It was a horror show’