Soldiers caught up in Vegas killings ‘acted in best Army tradition’

BRITISH soldiers have described how they used Tshirts, belts and towels as bandages and tourniquets to try to save casualties from the Las Vegas shooting massacre.

Troopers from 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards recalled panic in hotels close to the killing, as people believed the gunman was roaming around looking for fresh targets.

Six off-duty soldiers were caught up in America’s worst gun massacre while they were on leave in the city after a summer of exercises and training in California.

Stephen Paddock killed 58 and wounded hundreds when he opened fire from a suite in the Mandalay Bay hotel down on a country music festival below.

Tpr Ross Woodward, 23, from Nottingham, was with two comrades on a night out approaching the Tropicana Hotel close to the festival.

He said: “Everyone started running, it was chaos, so then we went forward past the crowd. Everyone was screaming, saying ‘a gunman is coming’.”

Fearing that a marauding shooter was working his way through the hotel, he helped barricade guests into a rooftop bar, but then fearing they would be trapped, went back down to the street and began finding casualties, including one man shot in the back. He said: “He just kept saying ‘I can’t breathe’, getting more and more panicked. I was holding his hand and keeping pressure on his back.” The man died minutes later. Tpr Woodward added: “There were so many people that needed help that the medic staff there just couldn’t keep up with demand. Everyone who wasn’t injured was panic-stricken.”

Tpr Chris May, 24 from Bognor Regis, said: “Everyone was running through doors, screaming, trying to get away. They believed the gunman was on the floor and trying to get them. We walked out onto the street and there were just people walking around, they didn’t know what to do.” Nearby, a group of three other soldiers

‘You have got the training to help people, so why wouldn’t you?’

were at the Hooters Hotel. Tpr Dean Priestly, 28 from Kinmel Bay, North Wales, said: “You have got the background, you have got the training to help people, so why wouldn’t you?”

Major Ben Parkyn, the soldiers’ commanding officer, said: “It’s a pretty extraordinary thing to be faced with and I think that their actions in that scenario were equally extraordinary. These are junior lads who have not done operational tours, but they acted in exactly the right manner when confronted with this situation.”