(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) New York, June 12 (QNA) - The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified the killer of 50 people who died in a mass shooting in a Florida nightclub Sunday morning, which police say is a "terror incident." The shooter was identified as Omar Saddiqui Matin, possibly from Afghanistan. The F.B.I., which has taken over the investigation, say Matin may have had ties to radical Islamist terrorism.
Another 53 people have been wounded after Matin armed with an automatic rifle and a hand gun started firing indiscriminately into the crowded nightspot in downtown Orlando, Florida at 2 a.m. local time Sunday morning.
Matin, who police said was well-prepared, was killed in a shootout with police, said Orlando Police Chief John Mina.
Mina said the death toll could rise as not all of the bodies had yet been removed from the club.
Eyewitnesses initially told police that there was a second gunman at the scene. But Mina explained that the one gunman, Matin, left the bar and was confronted by a policeman outside. After shots were exchanged, the gunman reentered the nightclub and resumed shooting.
Matin also took an undetermined number of people hostage. More than 100 people were believed to have been inside the nightclub, named The Pulse. The police decided to free the hostages by setting off a "controlled explosion" at 5 am to allow them to escape, Mina said.
Nine police officers took part in the shootout, and one was injured, said Mina.
Police initially thought Matin had a bomb, but have now ruled that out.
Normally an incident of mass casualties is named a terrorist attack when the attackers have a political motive. Matin''s motive is not yet known, police said.
Omar Saddiqui Matin, the suspected terrorist who killed 50 people in a Florida nightclub on Sunday before being shot dead by police, was employed since 2007 for G4S, a controversial security company that has worked with Israeli occupation prisons.
The British firm signed a contract with the Israeli Prison Authority in 2007 to provide security at Israeli prisons. The company has also provided security at controversial checkpoints on the occupied West Bank, as well on illegal Israeli settlements.
Under pressure from human rights groups, three United Nations agencies dropped contracts with G4S to provide security to U.N. facilities in Amman, Jordan. In June 2014, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu signed an open letter to the company demanding that it "end its complicity in Israel''s abuse of child prisoners." G4S received the contract to provide security at London''s 2012 Summer Olympics but did such a poor job that the 3,500 British army troops had to be brought in to maintain security.
According to a study by Wits University in Johannesburg, nearly 3,000 inmates at the G4S-run Mangaung Prison in South Africa were tortured using electroshock and forced injections.
G4S was criticized in 2014 for using immigrant prisoners in Britain for cheap labour, paying as little as ?1 per hour.
Because of his work at G4S, Matin was able to legally purchase the weapons he used in the Orlando massacre, police said.