Renowned Ghanaian Fashion designer, Tetteh Plahar, is shocked about the shooting incident in Las Vegas in the United States of America (USA).
He said he was lucky to have escaped unhurt as he was at a party at the hotel where the unfortunate shooting took place.
At least 58 people are feared dead and 515 injured when Stephen Paddock, 64, and a resident of Mesquite, Navada, fired hundreds of bullets into a music festival crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on Monday.
Narrating his ordeal to the Daily Heritage, he said Ghanaians in the city are living in fear after the shooting incident.
Mr Plahar, together with seven other Ghanaians, was attending a friend’s party and had checked in at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, where the shooting took place.
According to him, they do not feel safe living in Las Vegas as “we are so terrified that we couldn’t sleep the whole night.”
“If you look at the layout of the city, you feel everything is fine. But now if I am walking on the streets I have to be extra-careful and look behind me to see who is coming,” he added,
“We were in our rooms at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, which is directly opposite the place where the shooting happened. When I heard the sound outside, I thought it was fireworks until I saw people running and police vehicles driving to the scene.
“I was panicking because we didn’t know where he [the gunman] was hiding and what he would do next. We were terrified but things calmed down when the police came around,” he narrated.
The former designer for the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings said “Prior to the shootings, security at the hotel wasn’t tight. No one was checking what one was carrying inside the hotel.
“We can’t say we’re safe now because during our breakfast this morning we were told there was a bomb scare and that we should stay indoors. When you come close to incidents like this, you feel very scared,” he said.
He continued that, “we are checking out of the hotel in the next 30 minutes because we don’t feel safe here.”