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WATCH: Trump throws paper towels at hurricane relief event in Puerto Rico

US President Donald Trump has tossed paper towels into the crowd at a hurricane relief event. He ...
Newstalk
Newstalk

06.46 4 Oct 2017


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WATCH: Trump throws paper towe...

WATCH: Trump throws paper towels at hurricane relief event in Puerto Rico

Newstalk
Newstalk

06.46 4 Oct 2017


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US President Donald Trump has tossed paper towels into the crowd at a hurricane relief event.

He was visiting the hurricane-ravaged island of Puerto Rico while surveying damage from Hurricane Maria.

At least six people were killed on the island when the storm hit last month.

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Puerto Rico's 3.4 million residents were forced to traverse a maze of uprooted trees, destroyed scraps of buildings and blown-away cars.

It was the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean island since 1932.

While handing out supplies at Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo, he began throwing the packets of paper towels at people gathered there.

US President Donald Trump tosses paper towels into a crowd as he hands out supplies to people affected by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico | Images: Evan Vucci/AP/Press Association Images

Meanwhile he is due to visit Las Vegas on Wednesday following the country's worst ever mass shooting.

The gunman set up cameras inside and outside his hotel room before firing for nine minutes at a concert crowd below.

Police have revealed that Stephen Paddock placed one camera in a food service cart outside his room before he fired on concertgoers at a "progressively rapid rate" through windows on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.

At a news conference, Sheriff Joe Lombardo said all but three of the 59 people who were killed by Paddock have now been identified.

He said patrol officers acting on their own and without the direction of a supervisor were the first to react to the situation and close in on Paddock's room.

The officers evacuated people from the 29th to 32nd floors before converging on the attacker's suite.

A SWAT team then used explosives to gain entry, where Paddock was found dead among his arsenal of weapons.

A hotel security guard who approached the room during the rampage was shot through the door and wounded in the leg.

Three search warrants have been executed since Sunday night's attack on a country music festival - one in the hotel and two on Paddock's homes in Mesquite and Reno, both cities in Nevada.

Sheriff Lombardo said officers discovered five handguns, two shotguns and a "plethora" of ammunition in the Reno property.

He said: "The fact that he had the type of weaponry and amount of weaponry in that room, it was pre-planned extensively."

He added that what police had to determine now was whether anyone else was involved.

Among the persons of interest was Paddock's girlfriend, Philippines-born Marilou Danley, who was on her way back to the US on Tuesday night for questioning.

It also emerged that investigators are examining a US$100,000 (€84,952) wire transfer Paddock sent to an account in the Philippines that "appears to have been intended" for Ms Danley.

The 62-year-old Australian citizen is said to have shared Paddock's apartment block at a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada, about 145km northeast of Las Vegas, where police found 19 more guns.

Additional reporting: IRN


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