One of the survivors of a mass shooting in a Florida nightclub has described how he pretended to be dead while the shooter was still active.
49 people were killed in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in the early hours of Sunday morning by 29-year-old Omar Mateen.
Angel Colon, who was in the nightclub with friends at the time of the attack described hearing gunfire and falling to the floor after he was shot in the left leg.
"I couldn't walk at all," Mr Colon told a reporters at Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he is one of 27 survivors being treated. "All I could do was lay down. People were running over me."
Mr Colon said he had a hopeful moment when Mateen went into a bathroom - where he later took hostages - but the gunman then emerged, systematically making his way through the club shooting people who were already down, apparently to ensure they were dead.
"I look over and he shoots the girl next to me and I was just there laying down and thinking, 'I'm next, I'm dead'" Mr Colon said.
Mateen shot him twice more, with one bullet apparently aimed for Mr Colon's head striking his hand, and another hitting his hip, he recalled.
"I was just prepared to stay there laying down so he wouldn't know I was alive," he said. When police drove Mateen back into a restroom, an officer dragged Mr Colon to safety.
Meanwhile, Mateen's father has dismissed suggestions that his son my have been gay himself.
In the wake of the attack Seddique Mateen said his son had harboured strong anti-gay feelings.
However, some media reports cited men saying they had seen Mateen visiting the nightclub previously.
Vigils held to honour Orlando massacre victims
Meanwhile, vigils have been held in Ireland and around the world for victims of the mass shooting in a Florida nightclub.
Mateen was shot dead by police who stormed the Pulse club after a three-hour siege.
Dr Michael Cheatham, a member of the surgical team at Orlando Health Medical Center has said that of the original 44 people that were taken to that facility after the shooting, 27 remain in the hospital.
Six people are critically-ill, five are in "guarded" condition and 16 are stable, he said.
President Barack Obama is to visit Orlando on Thursday to pay his respects to the families of the victims.
Mr Obama has said that while the shooting was the result of "terror and hate", there was no clear evidence that it was ordered by the so-called Islamic State group.
Most of the people fatally shot were Latino, more than half of them of Puerto Rican origin and at least four of them Mexican citizens
CBS spoke with the surgeons who worked on 44 of the wounded victims from Pulse nightclub in Orlando.https://t.co/Cd4slBNHIe
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 14, 2016
"I wish I could save more" - Imran Yousuf, bouncer at Pulse nightclub, recalls the events of Saturday night.
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 14, 2016
-CBShttps://t.co/ubGlSSvhjv
Meanwhile, flags were flown at half mast at Government Buildings today.
Books of condolence have been opened in cities and towns across the country.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said he has asked for prayers to be said at all masses in the diocese this weekend for the victims.
In a statement, Dr Martin said: "People all over the world are shocked. How do we explain that our modern society can somehow be held to ransom in successive gun attacks by individuals or small groups filed with hatred?"
Books of Condolence will open at the Pro-Cathedral "for those who wish to express their grief and outrage", he added.
Cities around the world have been remembering the victims of the Orlando massacre https://t.co/tyd7xAOpFchttps://t.co/aqFH9IPo3T
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 14, 2016
Sydney Harbour Bridge was just one of a number of sites around the world lit up in rainbow colours as hundreds gathered for a vigil for the victims.
Sydney Town Hall was also swathed in pink light as Sydneysiders lit candles, listened to speeches and paid tribute to those killed in the worst mass shooting in recent US history.
Thousands of people gathered at the birthplace in New York of the gay rights movement last night to honor the Orlando victims, demand tolerance and call for tighter gun control.
The crowd packed the street outside The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village carrying rainbow pride flags and posters saying "We Stand With Orlando" as a number of LGBT activists addressed the rally.
Speakers called for US-wide tolerance of gay, lesbian and transgender rights, a ban on assault weapons, tougher background checks for those who purchase guns and stinging rebuke of Islamophobia in the US.
Leaders of the gathering, organised by the LGBT community, read out the names and ages of the 49 people who were killed.
"When thousands of people come together in love, in support, it is a renunciation of hatred," said Mayor Bill de Blasio, paying tribute to the dead, who included a nursing school student from Brooklyn.
The Stonewall Inn considers itself the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement where members of the gay community rose up against harassment from police officers on 28 June 1969.
At the time, police raided gay bars when it was illegal to serve gay people alcohol or for gays to dance with each other, the Inn said.
