LAS VEGAS, the United States, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump travelled to Las Vegas on Wednesday, three days after the city was shaken by the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history that killed 59 people and wounded more than 500 others.
Trump and first lady Melania traveled to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada for a private visit with patients and medical professionals.
University Medical Center confirmed to Xinhua that about 50 people were admitted to the renowned hospital located in Las Vegas after Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old gambler and real estate investor, opened fire on Sunday night into an outdoor music festival on Las Vegas Strip.
Later in the day, the White House said, Trump was to meet with "civilian heroes" and first responders to the shooting spree when Paddock rained bullets from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd of more than 22,000 people attending Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival.
A day after his visit to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, Trump's visit to Las Vegas on Wednesday is his second trip in two days aimed at comforting victims of tragedy.
As the president departed the White House, Trump told reporters, "It's a very sad thing. We are going to pay our respects and to see the police who have done really a fantastic job in a very short time."
"It's a very, very sad day for me, personally," the president said.
The worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history has renewed vehement discussion from the public to the center of Washington politics about gun rights to curb gun violence.
According to the non-profit organization Gun Violence Archive, the mass shooting in Las Vegas late Sunday night was the 273rd mass shooting in the United States in the 275 days of 2017 so far.
On Tuesday when asked whether it was time to debate gun control measures, he responded, "Perhaps that will come. But that's now for now."
"Don't be sorry. No one could really prevent it other than better security," local resident Jade Marie Fliegman, who was locked down in a nearby Casinos in the massacre, told Xinhua after the shooting.
"I worry about a lot the safety in America, because it feels like it has happened more and more through the past few years."