Las Vegas residents join long queues to donate blood for shooting victims

Las Vegas residents have rushed to the aid of the 527 people who were injured when gunman Stephen Paddock rained bullets down on concertgoers from his hotel window, killing at least 59 people.

With many unsure what they could do to ease their city’s suffering, local residents inundated blood centres to assist those fighting for life in hospital.

Long line stretched onto the footpath outside blood donation centres where would-be donors queued up for four to five hours.

“One day is not going to fill up our blood blank… this is going to be today, tomorrow, the next day,” local woman Brenda Logan said.

Doors to the facility normally don’t open until 7am but when United Blood Services regional director Erik Hill spotted 30 odd people waiting inline at 2:30am, he knew they couldn’t wait.

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“We’re all hands on deck. I’m not aware of any that aren’t working right now,” Hill said.

Mr Hill said they had now “met the immediate need”, but people are still lining up.

“The problem is I’ve had staff here now for 12 hours,” he said Monday afternoon (local time).

“We’ve met the immediate need of blood, so now what we’re asking people to do is pledge to come back in a week, come back in two weeks … (or) a few days.