Reports of Active Shooter on Las Vegas Strip; Trump Appears to Undermine Tillerson on North Korea; Active Shorter at Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas; Witnesses Describe Shooting in Las Vegas.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: With the US government's response to desperate needs in Puerto Rico under scrutiny, President Trump makes a symbolic move, dedicating a golf trophy to hurricane victims. Despite violent clashes with police, Catalonians claim victory in their controversial vote to become independent from Spain. And more than 100,000 are left far from home as a British airline goes bust. How the UK government plans to bring them home. Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. We're live in Atlanta and this is</s>CNN NEWSROOM. ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>ALLEN: Breaking news that's into CNN. Police in Las Vegas are investigating reports of an active shooter near the Mandalay Bay Casino on the Strip. Police are asking everyone to avoid this area. We're just getting to see some video of the scene. We'll bring you more updates as we get them. Right now, though, we want to join our affiliate in Las Vegas KLAS and try and get some more information from them.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: - some just holding their arms or legs or whatever it is, just trying to find that medical staff to get the assistance that they need. But for now, reporting live Darlene Melendez, "8 News Now".</s>ALLEN: So, again, we won't be able to tell much from that little clip we got that news reporter, but we're going to continue to monitor the story. You can see, lot of police presence. Let's try to listen in and see if they're reporting on the scene again.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: - barricaded this area off. We've seen some of metro's units come through here. They have an entire kind of tactical team that is set up on the perimeter as well. And you can see all of the first responders, all of those firefighters, ambulances, all getting here, trying to help people who may have been hurt or possibly worse. We don't know the extent of injuries at this point. But to kind of speak to that point that you were talking about Gerard, as far as potential shooters that had high-ground advantage, I spoke with one witness who told that that's exactly what he saw. He saw someone that was several floors high and was shooting into the crowd of people. He said he heard hundreds of shots and we don't know exactly how many people might have been injured in this. But as you can tell, it's a very chaotic situation now here. And I want to show you kind of what has happened here on the south side of the Strip. All of these people - and we can turn the camera around here. All these people have been told that they cannot stay in the area that is now - we have casino workers, we have tourists here with their luggage, and we have hundreds and thousands of people all lining down. And let's just take a walk down here and you can see just kind of how many people - the scope of it - that have been affected by this. And by the way this road, Las Vegas Boulevard completely and effectively shut down at this point. A lot of people on their phones, you can see, trying to get in contact with family presumably, trying to make sure that they know that they're OK, but also trying to figure out exactly what is going on. But, again, Gerard, this is a very fluid situation. We're trying to figure out exactly what's going on here. But the main priority that police have told everybody here, and you can see some of the police officers telling people that are getting into the roads - get out of the road - safety here is priority. You can some more folks over here kind of coming into to the cordoned off, kind of safe area, the area that police are telling everybody to go to. But there's a lot of folks here in - the aftermath is that, within 5 to 10 minutes, I caught up with them and they are asking where do I go, I don't know where to go, how can I get a cab out of here, and everything kind of just enclosing on them and was trapped. And if you take a look on this side, on the west side of the Strip here, you can see it's all lined up with police cars, all units out here from different agencies here and trying to help out, and we also have air units that are kind of patrolling and getting a look at the - from the sky here as well. But, again, we are actively trying to work - trying to figure out exactly what's going on here. We're going to talk to some more folks, see what they had to say and what this experience has been like for them. But, for now, let's send it back to you, Gerard.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, Nathan. Thank you once again for the update there, just outside Mandalay Bay. I want to bring people up to speed. There has been a shooting with multiple victims just outside Mandalay Bay. There was a concert taking place -</s>ALLEN: All right. That's the station there in Las Vegas bringing us the very latest. You can see the police presence. We just heard from our affiliate reporter there that apparently there are multiple victims who were shots, hundreds of shots according to witnesses. They heard someone was several floors high, shooting into the crowd from the area of Mandalay Bay Resort there. The Las Vegas Boulevard is shut down. There's no word on - so much we don't know. How many victims? Do they have this shooter? Is the area secured? This story broke about - within the past 15, 20, 25 minutes. And what we knew was - all we knew was there is an active shooter, everyone should take cover. So, we have several affiliates in Las Vegas continuing to bring us the latest on this story. And as we continue to get more information trickling in, we will bring it to you, but you can see the scene right there in Las Vegas. It's evening in Las Vegas, on Sunday night. You can imagine the crowds. You can see the people that are standing around, not sure where to go. I guess they've been evacuated from that area, while police figure out what has happened and who has been injured and we'll continue to follow it as we get more information for you. If we see a reporter like that, we'll go back to it. But for now, we're going to bring you some other news that we're following as well. US President Donald Trump sending mixed messages about US policy towards North Korea. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Saturday he had lines of communication with North Korea, but a day later, the president tweeted that talks with Pyongyang were a waste of time. We get more now from Ryan Nobles.</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mixed messages coming from the Trump administration as it relates to North Korea. This, after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left a meeting with the President of China where he talked about having conversations and open lines of communications with the North Koreans. The president tweeting on Sunday morning, quote, "I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he's wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man. Save your energy Rex. We'll do what needs to be done." Now, this is in response to Tillerson had to say in Beijing. Tillerson saying, "We are probing, so stay tuned. We asked, would you like to talk? We have lines of communication to Pyongyang. We're not in a dark situation or a blackout. We have a couple of channels to Pyongyang. We can talk to them. We do talk to them directly through our own channels." Now, the president essentially telling his secretary of state that he's wasting his time by attempting to talk to China and that seems to fly directly in the face of the long-held administration policy that diplomacy was the first option and military action would be second. And the State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert seemed to be trying to clean up this back and forth between the secretary of state and the president with a series of tweets of her own when she said, quote, "Diplomatic channels are open for Kim Jong-Un for now. They won't be open forever." She went on to say that "DPRK will not obtain nuclear capabilities. Whether through diplomacy or force is up to the regime." And the closest advisers to President Trump -- and that would be his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Defense Secretary Jim Mattis - have long pushed for diplomacy being the primary option, holding out a military strike as a last possible move, if they felt there were no options left. The administration's stated goal continues to be disarming Kim Jong- Un's nuclear program and in particular preventing him from being able to put a nuclear warhead on a missile that could strike the United States or its allies. Ryan Nobles, CNN, with the president in Branchburg, New Jersey.</s>ALLEN: Mr. Trump's dismissal of diplomacy is also likely to have an impact in South Korea. Our Paula Hancocks Hancock is tracking that. She joins me now from Seoul. And the new government though South Korea, Paula, has indicated a willingness for diplomacy. So, what's the reaction to this kind of disconnect between secretary of state and the US president?</s>PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Natalie, there's been no direct response to this. There's no direct reaction. We wouldn't really expect one. This, obviously, is something that the South Korean government would not really want to intervene in. Clearly, the government here in South Korea is more pro-dialogue, pro-engagement than the previous conservative administration. But up until now, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea has been going along with the US' more hardline approach of pressure and sanctions. But when it comes to the actual tweets from the US president, the officials here - to be honest, officials in many countries around the world are quite reticent to comment directly. I did speak to the South Korean President Moon Jae-in a couple of weeks ago and I asked him about a separate tweet from the US president when he talked about South Korea's appeasement of North Korea. And President Moon said that it's important not to take Trump's tweets too narrowly. So, I think that's really the best answer you're going to get that officials here are not wanting to be drawn on what does appear to be a disconnect between the US secretary of state and the US president. Natalie?</s>ALLEN: Do they have any plans for meetings with Mr. Tillerson while he's in that area?</s>HANCOCKS: Well, the secretary of state has gone back to the United States, but certainly it was an important meeting that he had in China. It was clearly coming off the back of renewed sanctions of the UN Security Council resolution, very important that China is fully onboard with implementing those sanctions fully. And we have heard a number of the pledges from China recently when it comes to trying to prevent revenues getting to North Korea that can be funneled into its nuclear and missile program. So, certainly, China on paper and verbally corresponding with the sanctions that have been passed. But, of course, it's what happens on the ground that is the most important thing. China shares a very large border with North Korea. And if China was able to or willing to, then it could really strengthen the restrictions financially on North Korea and really start to make North Korea feel that pinch. But, certainly, it's interesting that this is happening at this point when many people in the region are looking ahead to the US President Donald Trump visiting here next month as well. Natalie?</s>ALLEN: Yes. Many people will be watching that for sure. Paula, thank you so much for your reporting there from Seoul, South Korea. I want to turn back to the breaking news that has just happened about, what, 20, 25 minutes ago. Police in Las Vegas investigating reports of an active shooter near the Mandalay Bay Casino on the Strip. Police are asking everyone to avoid this area. You can appreciate the police presence with the sirens. Let's go to our affiliate, the reporter there on the ground.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just saw that team that was moving - that tactical team that kind of moved in. But a very serious situation out here. And I want to bring in Danny (ph) here. He's visiting from Australia. You were in the Mandalay Bay. Tell me what you saw, what you heard?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw first officers, about 8, running into the Lift A - the 31 Lift A. They were going up. They were coming down. They were going this way, that way. We were told to get out. We were told to get in. The shooters - one shooter is up there still, we are told by police, shooting out and one is roaming around. And we've been told to come here and we think we're safe here because there is so many bodies.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see the shooters at all?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no one saw it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you hear anything?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Lot of people heard gunshots. Yes. But the initial gunshots apparently were like machine gun fire.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like a like a rapid-fire?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, when you heard that, what was your reaction when you heard all that?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We knew it was chaos and mayhem because people were running out of everywhere. The police were really unaware of where the ground person was. They were going this way, that way. There's SWAT everywhere. We were tucked away, about 12 of us, in a little - like a carpark thing and then it's like - the SWAT came and said, hands up</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said that - you described to me that you were running from Mandalay Bay for like the last hour? Why do you feel like you are running? I mean -</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn't know where the shooter is. Police were - one of them telling us to go in, they'll tell us to go that way. So, we knew they were confused like we were. And we just wanted to stay close to the</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police said run and then we started running. Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like, going on sprinting.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were running. And carrying bags and helping people. It was about 12, 14 of us that we all stuck together. A couple of big boys, bigger than - like, big boys and we thought</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What ran through your head, I mean, when you heard shooter?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from Australia. We don't cop this sort of stuff in Australia that much. But it was just try and keep as many people safe, I suppose, and you're running where people tell you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you guys staying at the Mandalay Bay?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes. We had conferences there tomorrow, today and the next day.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see anybody that was injured or hurt?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Apparently, all the Twitter reports is that the shooters were shooting at the concert across the hall.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thankfully, you guys are OK. And, hopefully, everybody can stay safe out here. OK. Looks like we have some movement here. They're kind of expanding the perimeter here. Police are telling everybody to move further south. So, we're going to do that as well. And if you can turn the camera here, you can see - it looks like - seems they're getting ready to move in. So, this is escalating here, at least in the urgency that we see. A lot of people are here with their phones trying to document it. But we can see - well, let's try to migrate with them, so we're not getting in anybody's way here. But as you can imagine, trying to get thousands and thousands of people to move all cohesively and out of the way and keep them out of harm's way, I mean, that's the priority here for Metro and all of the law enforcement agencies that are out here right now. But it's a surreal sight to see.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Nathan, whatever you do, just make sure that you're following the advice there of the officers and the commands as all the residents there are and the citizens are. We want to go ahead and show you some images as well that we've been receiving via social media. This is via Banjo. And what you're looking at here are the crowds running presumably after those -</s>ALLEN: We're going to interrupt for a moment because CNN is just getting word that multiple people are at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas with gunshot wounds. That's according to a hospital spokeswoman. We've been hearing from the people there who have been getting out of the way, saying that they heard up to hundreds of shots from a shooter that was somewhere in the vicinity of the Mandalay Bay Casino. That's it there, in the distance, you see with the vertical gold stripes. But, again, we're just learning multiple people have been taken to the hospital, suffering from gunshots. We are also learning from the people, this reporter for our affiliate is talking with, that they were attending some sort of concert, and it seems that this shooter was aiming at them as this person move about firing a weapon that witnesses there - and, again, these are witnesses doing the best they can to explain what they experienced in a very, very scary situation, that it sounded like a very high-powered, some sort of machine gun. And you can see right there that officers are moving in. We can't tell where they're coming from and where they're headed. But our reporter there also saying it seems that some SWAT teams were staking out a new location and continue to scour this area because we do not know right now whether this area is secure, whether they have an idea of where this shooter is, whether the shooter is in custody, we just don't know. But this is a situation that has just been underway for about 25 minutes now and we're going to stay on top of it and continue to monitor it and bring you what we're learning. A quick break here. We're right back with this breaking news out of Las Vegas.