Number of dead in Orlando attack revised down to 49

US law enforcement authorities on Monday lowered the death toll from the weekend massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, to 49, the deadliest mass shooting in American history, explaining that the shooter had been counted in the original tally.

“We don’t include the shooter as a victim,” FBI special agent Paul Wysopal told an early morning press conference, revising the toll.

In the early hours of Sunday, Omar Seddique Mateen, a 29-year-old New York native and son of Afghan immigrants, burst into the Pulse nightclub and opened fire. Beyond the dead, more than 50 people were wounded in the carnage.

The situation evolved into a hostage situation before he was killed in a shootout with police.

Wysopal said the families of about half of the victims have been notified.

US anti-terror strategy came under fresh scrutiny after it was revealed that the gunman had been previously cleared of jihadist ties.

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed it was behind Sunday’s carnage at the Pulse nightclub.

It said in a radio bulletin Monday that the attack on the “crusader gathering” was carried out by “one of the soldiers of the caliphate.”

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said law enforcement was looking back to see if it had any more information on Mateen.

Rep. Adam Schiff said in a statement that the American intelligence community was “combing through its holdings, checking what we have on the shooter, and coordinating with local law enforcement in the investigation.”

Schiff said similarity between last year’s terror attack on the Bataclan Theater in Paris and the shooter’s targeting of the LGBT community during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan “indicates an ISIS-inspired act of terrorism.”

“Whether this attack was also ISIS-directed remains to be determined,” Schiff said, using an alternate acronym for Islamic State.

World leaders joined in condemning the murderous assault, which triggered grief and shock but also defiance in the gay and lesbian community as monuments from New York to Paris were being lit up in memory of the victims.

Terrified survivors described how the gunman raked clubgoers with bullets, prompting a police SWAT team to storm the venue and shoot dead the attacker, identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen.

The FBI admitted that Mateen had previously been investigated — but cleared — for ties to a US suicide bomber.

Special Agent Ronald Hopper also said Mateen was reported to have made a 911 call pledging allegiance to IS shortly before the massacre.

“We know enough to say that this was an act of terror and an act of hate,” US President Barack Obama said.

The Orlando assault is being treated as the worst act of terror on US soil since the September 11, 2001 attacks claimed by al-Qaeda.

Monday’s claim on Al-Bayan radio followed a report by the IS-linked news agency Amaq on Sunday that the attack had been “carried out by an Islamic fighter.”

Mateen was born to Afghan parents in New York in 1986 and lived in Port St Lucie, Florida, about a two-hour drive from Orlando.

His father Mir Seddique told NBC News his son may have been motivated by homophobia, insisting: “This had nothing to do with religion.”

The suspect’s ex-wife, who divorced him in 2011, told reporters he had been violently abusive to her but was not especially religious.

But Hopper told reporters Mateen’s behavior had raised red flags well before Sunday’s attack.

In 2013 he was probed by the bureau after making inflammatory comments to co-workers that suggested terrorist ties.

In 2014 he was again questioned by agents investigating his contacts with Moner Mohammad Abusalha, a fellow Floridian.

Abusalha became notorious as the first US citizen to carry out a suicide bombing in Syria, and was reportedly a member of an Al-Qaeda affiliate.

“We determined the contact was minimal and did not constitute a substantive relationship or a threat at that time,” Hopper said.