What to Know About the Mandalay Bay Resort Hotel at the Center of the Las Vegas Shooting

At least 58 people were killed and more than 515 injured after a 64-year-old gunman called Stephen Paddock opened fire from his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, across the street from the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip. The death toll makes the assault the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Paddock was found dead in his hotel room when a SWAT team swarmed the room, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said Monday. Police used a controlled explosion to get into the room, where they found at least 10 rifles, authorities said. Audience members at the festival reported seeing flashes of muzzle light coming from the upper floor of the hotel.

The hotel released a statement on Twitter Monday morning, in response to the incident. It explained that the Mandalay Bay Resort, along with other hotels in the vicinity, was put on lockdown following orders from the police.

Later Monday morning, the hotel tweeted again, this time to let guests know that they could return to their rooms.

The Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino is an iconic 3,211-room hotel which opened in March 1999. It contains more than 135,000 square feet of games, including Poker, Blackjack, Ultimate Texas Hold’em and slot machines. It boasts a wave pool, lazy river and real sand – and a beach club exclusively for guests aged 21 and older.

There are also three on-site wedding chapels, as well as a tattoo outlet, a 1,800-seat concert hall (which has seen performances from big names including Billy Idol and Third Eye Blind), a minus five degrees Celsius ice bar, a 38,000-square-foot nightclub and a Michael Jackson-themed visual and audio experience. The hotel is known for its enormous shark reef aquarium, which has more than 2,000 animals on display, including 12 types of shark.

The hotel has featured in a number of movies and TV shows, including What Happens in Vegas, Modern Family, The Hangover and Ocean’s Eleven and Thirteen. Janet Jackson is scheduled to perform at the hotel’s events center on Oct. 14 and the Canadian indie rock band, Arcade Fire, is set to perform there on Oct. 22.

According to Market Watch, shares in MGM Resorts International — the company which owns the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino — dropped 2.9% in the wake of the shooting.