Megalodon Sightings: Is the Megalodon Shark Still Alive
Updated on June 6, 2016
Megalodon sightings prove the prehistoric shark is still alive today
The Megalodon Shark
Alleged
Megalodon shark sightings over the years have led to the legend of a
massive, prehistoric shark that still patrols the oceans of our world.
Carcharodon Megalodon was once a real shark — the most formidable
predator the world have ever seen — but modern science claims it went
extinct long ago. The idea that it might still be alive today is both
terrifying and fascinating. Even though most marine biologists and shark researchers tell us it's
impossible, it's nevertheless interesting to wonder if and how a huge
predatory shark could still exist somewhere in the vastness of the sea.
At a maximum length of up to 60 feet, the Megalodon was the largest
shark that ever lived, a wrecking machine of teeth and muscle that
preyed on adult whales. It's hard to imagine there could still be a
viable population of such creatures out there somewhere, living
undetected. Still, there are occasional reports of massive sharks thirty feet
long or more from around the world. Are these real-life accounts of
modern Megalodon sightings? If not, what are these witnesses seeing? Is
it possible mainstream science has it wrong, and is it still out there? In this article, we'll take a look at some compelling evidence and
stories that suggest Megalodon is still with us. In the end, it's up to
you to decide: Is there enough proof to support the idea that the
Megalodon shark is still alive? If you are mostly interested in learning more about the real prehistoric Megalodon shark, check out:
There
has been a lot of controversy surrounding the Megalodon shark in recent
years. This has in turn led to a great deal of confusion about
Megalodon encounters in modern times, as well as the real creature that
swam in our oceans for millions of years. Unfortunately, some people
have interpreted this misinformation to mean Megalodon is entirely made
up. That is far from the case. Rest assured Megalodon really did exist. One reason we know this is
because of an abundant supply of fossil teeth it left behind. These
teeth are much larger than those of any living shark, including the
great white, and from them researchers have been able to determine the
size, weight and even some of the habits of the real Megalodon shark. So, when we talk about Megalodon we are looking at it from two
different points of view: Paleontology and Cryptozoology. I think it is
important to distinguish the difference.
The shark of paleontology can be studied by looking at the
fossil record and living sharks in order to puzzle out what the real
Megalodon may have been like. From a paleontology perspective, this
shark is officially extinct, but that doesn’t make it any less
interesting.
The idea of a living Megalodon is a stance taken by
cryptozoologists, and it is not supported by mainstream science. Why
would anybody think this is possible? That is the question examined in
this article, and later we will get into how and why people think Meg
could still be around.
I encourage readers to consider Megalodon from both points of
view.But let's get down to the real point of this article. Could this
prehistoric predator still be out there even today?
How Could Megalodon Be Alive Today?
We
know of the real Megalodon shark only from fossil records and preserved
teeth. Because shark skeletons consist mostly of cartilage, these are
the only parts that fossilize. No living or dead specimen has ever been
recovered in modern times. Also, there are no "official" sightings on
record.
So what makes us think it could still be around? More importantly, has anything like this ever happened before? In fact, there is precedence for bizarre marine creatures turning up
when the odds are stacked against them. Some of them, like the Megalodon
shark, were once thought extinct, or believed to only be myths.
Megamouth Shark: The incredible Megamouth Shark
is another huge sea creature that can grow up to nearly 20 feet in
length, but it was not discovered until 1976. This beast eluded
researchers for so long because it lives in deep water, and comes closer
to the surface only at night. This, some researchers speculate, could
be the same behavior that makes Megalodon so tough to spot.
Coelacanth: The Coelacanth is
an even stranger case. This bizarre fish was thought to have gone
extinct 65 million years ago, until they were discovered in 1938, live
and well, off the coast of South Africa. The Coelacanth is a prehistoric
fish, referred to as the Living Fossil. While they're not giants like
Megalodon, the Megamouth, or the Giant Squid, they do still reach over
six feet in length.
Giant Squid: Giant Squid is a huge creature,
reaching up to 30 feet in length, dwelling in the deepest parts of the
ocean. Though science eventually knew of its existence from bodies
washed ashore and scars left on the bodies of whales, no live adult
specimen was ever caught on film until 2004. Now we know much more about
these creatures, and that there is an even larger monster squid out
there.
Colossal Squid: The Colossal Squid is an enormous
real-life sea monster, with the largest specimens weighing over half a
ton. Even though it was discovered in 1925, we still know very little
about this beast. Colossal and Giant squid sightings by ancient sailors
are probably what led to legends of the Kraken sea monster.
A Lazarus Taxon is a species that appears to have gone extinct, but then is found alive again. Usually, as is the case with the Coelacanth, there is a small remnant
population somewhere that had gone unnoticed, at least by modern
science. Often, locals know about the animals, but because a biologist
hasn't confirmed it the species remains officially extinct. If such an ancient and strange species like the Coelacanth could
endure without detection for so long, why can't the Megalodon be alive
out there somewhere after all these years?
How Big Was the Megalodon Shark? Here's Megalodon vs the Whale
Shark (blue) and Great White Shark (green). (Image: Matt Martyniuk
[GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons) | Source
Historic Megalodon Sightings and Evidence
There
are a handful of well-documented pieces of evidence and testimony that
suggest Megalodon is still alive. Here are a few of the more well-known
stories:
Huge Teeth Found by HMS Challenger: In 1875,
two Megalodon teeth were dredged up during a deep-sea expedition by the
HMS Challenger, dated only 10,000 - 15,000 years old. If the methods
used were accurate, this would mean it went extinct much more recently
than previously believed, and make it a contemporary of modern humans.
Ten thousand years is only a blink of an eye in the world of
paleontology. It does not take a great imagination to think the
Megalodon shark may have survived the past 10,000 years undetected in
the depths of the oceans.
Fishermen Terrified by Giant Shark: In
1918 an Australian naturalist named David Stead recorded events when
local fisherman refused to go back out to sea after an unbelievably
massive shark had demolished their gear and taken their catch. These
were experienced men of the sea, familiar with whales and large sharks,
but whatever they had seen had frightened them so much that they refused
to work. According to Stead, they described it as between 35 and 90
meters long and pure white in color. These proportions seem
unbelievable. Could a shark really grow to that size? Were these men
exaggerating? Or, were they just confused?
Massive Shark Threatens 55-Foot Fishing Boat:
In the 1960s, the captain of a 55-foot fishing ship reported that a
white shark at least as long as the boat passed by while they sat at
anchor. The crew refused to officially discuss the sighting, but the
Captain gave his account. An experienced sailor, the Captain would have
been able to recognize a whale if that is what it had been, but he
claimed it was indeed a giant shark. Are stories such as this one based
on real encounters, or are they just products of the imaginations of
sailors who have been at sea too long?
Sharkzilla!
Recent Sightings and Anecdotal Evidence
Unfortunately,
when it comes to more recent sightings, the casual researcher has to
weed through a whole bunch of nonsense to get to any stories with
credibility. YouTube is awash with clips of supposed Megalodon
encounters — all fake, of course. Megalodon has firmly planted itself in the realm of cryptozoology,
and few marine biologists and shark researchers take the creature
seriously in the modern day. Occasionally a stray report will wash up of
a larger-than-normal shark spotted somewhere. But, given that Great
Whites can theoretically grow in excess of 20 feet, it’s certainly
possible that these are misidentified animals. Most marine biologists
would be thrilled enough to discover a 20-foot Great White! But there are at least a few interesting tidbits for consideration:
Megalodon Monsterquest Episode: Back in 2009, the History Channel show Monsterquest
visited the Sea of Cortez where massive sharks have been reported for
years. These beasts are allegedly three times larger than the biggest
Great White sharks in the area, and known for decimating the local
marine mammal populations. The Monsterquest team failed to find
Megalodon, but many still believe that if this giant shark is still
around, this would be a prime location for finding it.
The Monster of Bird Island: In 2012, on an episode of the show Shark Wranglers called Monster of Bird Island,
shark researchers interviewed a group of South African fisherman who
claimed there was a huge shark in the area as big as their boat. The
boat appeared to be thirty or forty feet long. Was this a Megalodon
shark these fisherman had witnessed? Later in the episode, one of the
researchers told a tale of a 30-foot shark he had seen when he was younger.
The Discovery Channel and Megalodon Lives
This
concept of a living Megalodon has spawned some interesting movies and
novels, not to mention caught the attention of shark enthusiasts, both
amateur and professional. Even the Discovery Channel featured a special
on the Megalodon for Shark Week 2012, complete with a massive recreation
of the monster. The next year they went on to offer an even more artificial rendition of the creature, leading to the Shark Week 2013 fiasco. The docudrama called Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives ignited a world-wide interest, largely because so many people believed the footage and actors in the film were real. For Shark Week 2014, the Discovery Channel tried again with a rehashed version of Megalodon Lives.
However, the public had caught on by this point, and the same people
who were blown away a year earlier were now bent on finding facts. That's good. Megalodon is a creature worth exploring, and whether or
not it still survives today it is one of the most fascinating real-world
monsters that ever lived.
What was Megalodon Really Like?
Though
we think of the Megalodon as a giant Great White Shark, many
researchers believe it may not have resembled one at all. Indeed, some
say they were not even closely related. Did it act like a Great White? Most researchers say it was probably
similar, but of course there is no way to be sure. So when someone spots
a giant Great White Shark, what are the odds it could really be a relic
Megalodon? From this perspective, there could be countless undocumented Megalodon sightings throughout history. So what was Megalodon shark really like? Could the dramatization in the video below be accurate?
Megalodon Shark Attack
Giant Teeth and Massive Jaws
Like
the Great White, Megalodon had serrated teeth. While we think of modern
sharks as formidable predators we surely wouldn't want to cross paths
with, the Megalodon would have been in a whole new class of terror. Even
after countless centuries, some fossilized Megalodon teeth are still
sharp to the touch. We can only imagine what they were capable doing to a
large prey item like a whale, let alone a human. The largest Megalodon teeth can be seven inches long — the size of a
grown-man's hand. It was the largest and most highly evolved in a
lineage of megatoothed sharks. Though they look like larger versions of Great White Shark teeth,
paleontologists point to slight differences in the Megalodon teeth and
its ancestors as proof that the Megalodon shark is not closely related
to the Great White. This would put it in the genus Carcharocles rather than the Great White's Carcharodon. This is a matter still up for debate.
With jaws like this the Megalodon Shark would have made short work
of anything in the ocean, including whales and giant sea turtles. | Source Sea World
A Real Megalodon Tooth Found
A Powerful Bite Force
Regardless
of its heritage, this shark had a set of chompers never seen in the
animal kingdom before or since. Researchers have calculated that this
massive shark may have had a bite force of 18 tons! A T-Rex had a bite
force of only one-third that. The strongest biter in our world today is
the saltwater crocodile, and they only come in around 3700 pounds. It's clear that the teeth and jaws were made for destruction.
Interestingly, some researchers say it may have bitten off the fins of
its prey before finishing it off. That makes the Megalodon tooth arsenal
not only powerful, but capable of a certain amount of precision as
well.
Behavior and Hunting Technique
Much
like the modern Great White, Megalodon was probably an ambush predator
that took its prey by surprise, either from below or by approaching at
great speeds. This would have meant it was a very active shark, not some
lumbering giant like the Whale Shark. It was a coastal shark, hunting
offshore. Again, like our modern Great White. Megalodon would have been found in just about every ocean of the
world, preying on whales, dolphins and other marine mammals, and even
giant sea turtles. In short, it would have eaten just about anything it
wanted. If it were really around, it would not be hard to spot. If still alive today, it’s easy to see that all of the above can no
longer be true. A massive, 60-foot shark hunting whales close to shore
would surely be well-known, not to mention widely feared. So if Meg is
still around, it must have changed its behaviors drastically. Check out the video of Great White sharks hunting below and imagine
the Megalodon preying on massive whales in the same manner! It must have
been amazing!
Nurseries
Scientists
think that the Megalodon young lived in shark nurseries like Great
Whites do. These are areas, usually close to shore, where young sharks
can grow and feed in relative safety. Megalodon young may have started
out eating fish or other small prey items, and then moved on to larger
prey as they got bigger. So where are the baby Megalodon sharks? They may be living at great
depths like their parents, or it could be possible that they they are so
rare and so similar to the Great White that when they are spotted they
are simply assumed to be adult Great White sharks.
Megalodon was three times the size of the largest Great White Sharks!
The Livyatan Whale: A Formidable Rival?
It's
pretty clear that the Megalodon Shark was the most powerful beast in
the ancient Miocene ocean, but could there have been another creature
just as fearsome that gave Meg a run for its money? The recently discovered Livyatan whale
was as big as Megalodon, with teeth over a foot long. It competed with
Megalodon for food, but what happened when these two prehistoric
heavyweights met face to face?
Why Did Megalodon Go Extinct?
If
this shark was such a ferocious predator, why did it die out?
Unfortunately, even the strongest creatures are no match for Mother
Nature. While Meg inhabited every ocean of the world, the planet was a
much warmer place back then. As the environment entered a cooling period, sea levels began to fall
and currents shifted, causing not only a cooling of the ocean itself,
but also a shift in the food supply. Theoretically, the Megalodon shark
either couldn’t adapt to the colder climate, the food issues, or both.
There is also evidence that the situation may have been complicated by
the evolution of other large, predatory marine creatures which may have
infringed on Megalodon’s niche.
Does Megalodon Live in the Mariana Trench?
For
Meg to still be still alive, it would have had to adapt to colder
temperatures, a different breeding pattern, and greatly different food
sources. Some speculate that Megalodon populations may have survived in the Mariana Trench and other deep parts of the ocean. Certainly we know that whales and giant squids venture very deep, so
it is conceivable that Megalodon would have the food it requires. In
fact, recent research on Great White sharks shows they may dive fairly
deep in search of food. If Meg followed similar habits, perhaps it could
have made the adaptations to deep-ocean life much easier than some
experts suggest. Unfortunately, the larger an animal is, and the more specific its
niche in the environment, the harder a time it has in adapting to
environmental changes. It's unlikely that the vast majority of these
sharks would have been able to adapt to a major shortage in their food
supply. An animal that evolved to feed on large marine mammals would
have a tough time switching to oceanic fish, for example. However, what is conceivable is that a small population which had
already made some adaptations to a different food sources and lifestyle
(such as diving to great depths and feeding on squid) could have
survived the die-off and maintained a small, remnant population over the
centuries.
The Verdict
All
of these Megalodon sightings and stories are compelling, but are they
really enough to suggest that this massive shark is still alive? Is it
still out there somewhere, stalking the oceans of the world? Is there
any reason to worry about going in the water at the beach? If it makes you feel any better, mainstream science is unmoved by the
evidence supporting the possibility of Megalodon’s existence today.
Still, the idea of this monster shark out there patrolling the ocean
deep is fascinating to imagine. There is still so much of the ocean left
unexplored, the possibilities are almost endless.
The Megalodon Shark The World Biggest Shark in The World
In early December 1944, Gen. George Patton’s Third Army
was poised for the breakthrough across the Rhine River, a formidable
natural obstacle to the invasion of Germany by the western allies. The
date for the attack was set for Dec. 19 but foul weather threatened to
postpone the attack.
At 11 a.m. on the morning of Dec. 8, Patton phoned the Head Chaplain of the Third Army, James H. O’Neill, a Catholic priest.
“This is General Patton; do you have a good prayer for
weather? We must do something about those rains if we are to win the
war.”
The taciturn O’Neill told Patton that he would research
the topic and report back to him within an hour. After hanging up the
receiver, O’Neill looked out at the immoderate rains,
which had plagued the Third Army’s operations for the past three
months. As he searched through his prayer books, he could find no formal
prayers pertaining to weather so he composed an original prayer, which he typed on a note card:
Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech
Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with
which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle.
Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with
Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the
oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among
men and nations.
O’Neill threw on his trench coat and crossed the
quadrangle of the old French military barracks then serving as the Third
Army’s headquarters and reported to Patton’s office. Patton read the
prayer, returned it to O’Neill and directed him to “have 250,000 copies
printed and see to it that every man in the Third Army gets one.”
Copy
of the letter and Prayer for Fair Weather sent by Gen. Patton to
soldiers of the Third Army in Christmas 1944. Photo Credit: history.com
The often profane and tempestuous general and the
humble, mild-mannered priest then engaged in a lengthy discussion of the
importance of prayer.
“Chaplain, how much praying is being done in the Third Army?” inquired the general.
“Does the general mean by chaplains, or by the men?” asked O’Neill.
“By everybody,” Patton replied.
“I am afraid to admit it, but I do not believe that much
praying is going on,” responded O’Neill. “When there is fighting,
everyone prays, but now with this constant rain – when things are quiet,
dangerously quiet, men just sit and wait for things to happen. Prayer
out here is difficult. Both chaplains and men are removed from a special
building with a steeple. Prayer to most of them is a formal, ritualized
affair, involving special posture and a liturgical setting. I do not
believe that much praying is being done.”
“Chaplain, I am a strong believer in Prayer,” said
Patton. “There are three ways that men get what they want; by planning,
by working, and by Praying. Any great military operation takes careful
planning, or thinking. Then you must have well-trained troops to carry
it out: that’s working. But between the plan and the operation there is
always an unknown. That unknown spells defeat or victory, success or
failure. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually
comes. Some people call that getting the breaks; I call it God. God has
His part, or margin in everything. That’s where prayer comes in.”
Gen. George Patton. Photo Credit: generalpatton.com
Patton said that men should pray no matter where they
were, in church or out of it, that if they did not pray, sooner or later
they would “crack up.”
“We must ask God to stop these rains. These rains are
that margin that hold defeat or victory. If we all pray…it will be like
plugging in on a current whose source is in Heaven. I believe that
prayer completes that circuit. It is power,” said Patton.
The Prayer Card, with a Christmas Greeting printed on the reverse side, reached the troops between Dec. 12 and 14.
Two days later the Americans armies in Europe would find themselves engaged in the Battle of the Bulge, which
remains the greatest battle ever fought by American forces. The outcome
of that battle, and possibly of the entire Allied war effort in Europe,
would hinge on the weather. As Patton’s adjutant, Paul Harkins would
later write:
Whether it was the help of the Divine guidance asked for
in the prayer or just the normal course of human events, we never knew;
at any rate, on the twenty-third, the day after the prayer was issued,
the weather cleared and remained perfect for about six days. Enough to
allow the Allies to break the backbone of the Von Runstedt offensive and
turn a temporary setback into a crushing defeat for the enemy.
On Christmas Eve when Chaplain O’Neill walked
into Patton’s office the general rose, came from behind his desk with
hand outstretched, and said, “Chaplain, you’re the most popular man in
this Headquarters. You sure stand in good with the Lord and the
soldiers.”
The general then pinned a Bronze Star Medal on Chaplain O’Neill. –
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in this channel are solely those of each individual author.
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At least 50 dead in Orlando 'act of terrorism' (01:57)
Watch More Video
A man
armed with an assault rifle and pledging loyalty to Islamic State
militants killed 50 people during a gay pride celebration at a nightclub
in Orlando, Florida, early on Sunday in the deadliest mass shooting in
U.S. history, a rampage President Barack Obama denounced as an act of
terror and hate.Police
killed the gunman, who was identified as Omar Mateen, 29, a New
York-born Florida resident and U.S. citizen who was the son of
immigrants from Afghanistan and had twice been questioned by FBI agents
in recent years, authorities said. Mateen's
former wife described him as emotionally and mentally disturbed with a
violent temper, yet who aspired to be a police officer. He also worked
as an armed guard for the security firm G4S, the world's largest,
according to the company. Law
enforcement officials were probing evidence suggesting the attack was
inspired by Islamic State militants, although they said there was no
proof that Mateen had worked directly with the group. As
the shooting rampage was unfolding, Mateen "made calls to 911 this
morning in which he stated his allegiance to the leader of the Islamic
State," said Ronald Hopper, the FBI's assistant special agent in charge
on the case. Shots rang out at the
crowded Pulse nightclub in the heart of Orlando, one of the most popular
U.S. tourist destinations, as some 350 patrons were attending a Latin
music event in conjunction with gay pride week celebrations. Clubgoers
described scenes of terror and pandemonium, with one man who escaped
saying he hid under a car and bandaged a wounded stranger with his
shirt. "Words cannot and will not
describe the feeling of that," Joshua McGill said in a posting on
Facebook. "Being covered in blood. Trying to save a guy's life." Fifty-three
people were wounded in the rampage. It ranked as the deadliest single
U.S. mass shooting incident, eclipsing the massacre of 32 people at
Virginia Tech University in 2007. "We
know enough to say this was an act of terror, an act of hate," Obama
said in a speech from the White House. "As Americans, we are united in
grief, in outrage and in resolve to defend our people." U.S. officials cautioned, however, they had no conclusive evidence of any direct connection with any foreign extremist group. "So
far as we know at this time, his first direct contact was a pledge of
bayat (loyalty) he made during the massacre," said a U.S.
counterterrorism official. "This guy appears to have been pretty screwed
up without any help from anybody." The
attacker was carrying an AR-15-style assault rifle and a handgun,
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said. He also had an unidentified
"device," said Orlando Police Chief John Mina. The
shooting was nearly certain to reignite emotional debates over American
gun laws and homeland security in what is shaping up to be a vitriolic
U.S. presidential campaign between Democrat Hillary Clinton and
Republican Donald Trump.
The
attack came six months after a married couple in California - a
U.S.-born son of Pakistani immigrants and a Pakistani-born woman he
married in Saudi Arabia, fatally shot 14 people in San Bernardino in an
attack inspired by Islamic State. That couple died in a shootout with
police hours after their attack on a holiday party attended by the
husband's co-workers. 'UNIMAGINABLE' The
Florida shooting evolved into a hostage situation, which a team of SWAT
officers ended around dawn when they used armored cars to storm the
club before killing the gunman. It was unclear when the victims were
killed. Officials in Orlando, a
city of 270,000 people and home to tourist attractions including the
Disney World resort, were visibly shocked at the high death toll, which
they had initially put at 20. "We're
dealing with something that we never imagined and is unimaginable,"
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said. He said 39 people died inside the club,
two outside, and nine others died after being rushed to hospital. Orlando
Regional Medical Center hospital said it had admitted 44 victims,
including nine who died, and had carried out 26 operations on victims.
The
city began releasing names of the victims on Sunday, with the first
seven identified as Edward Sotomayor Jr., Stanley Almodovar, Luis Omar
Ocasio-Capo, Juan Ramon Guerrero, Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, Peter
Gonzalez-Cruz and Luis Vielma. Mateen
had twice been interviewed by FBI agents, in 2013 and 2014, after
making comments to co-workers indicating he supported militant groups,
but neither interview led to evidence of criminal activity, the FBI's
Hopper said. Hopper said Mateen was
questioned in 2014 about his contacts with Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, a
U.S. citizen who also had lived in Florida and became a suicide bomber
in Syria that year. Near Boulder,
Colorado, Mateen's former wife, Sitora Yusufiy, told reporters he worked
for a time as a correctional officer at a detention center for juvenile
delinquents in Fort Pierce, Florida, and had once sought admission to a
police academy. She said she had
been beaten and otherwise physically abused by Mateen during outbursts
of temper in which he would "express hatred towards everything."
Eventually, she was "rescued" from Mateen by family members who
intervened in a stormy marriage that ultimately ended in divorce, she
said. "I know he had a history of
steroids," Yusufiy told reporters outside a home where she was staying
with a man she identified as her current fiance. She also described
Mateen as "emotionally unstable," "mentally ill" and bipolar. Deborah Sherman, an FBI spokeswoman in Denver, confirmed that federal agents had interviewed Yusufiy in Colorado.
The
imam of the Florida mosque where Mateen attended prayers for nearly 10
years described him as a soft-spoken man who would visit regularly but
rarely interact with others in the congregation. CANDIDATES WEIGH IN Within
hours of the shooting, the presumptive presidential nominees of both
major political parties weighed in with statements on the tragedy. Trump,
who has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United
States, said he was "right on radical Islamic terrorism" and called on
Obama to resign because he did not say the words "radical Islam" in his
statement responding to the shooting. Clinton
echoed Obama's comments calling the attack both an act of terror and a
hate crime, adding that the massacre "reminds us once more that weapons
of war have no place on our streets." If
confirmed as an act of terrorism, it would be the deadliest such attack
on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001, when al Qaeda-trained hijackers
crashed jetliners into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a
field in Pennsylvania, killing some 3,000 people. The
choice of target was especially heart-wrenching for members of the U.S.
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, said LGBT advocacy
group Equality Florida. "Gay clubs
hold a significant place in LGBTQ history. They were often the only safe
gathering place and this horrific act strikes directly at our sense of
safety," the group said in a statement. "We will await the details in
tears of sadness and anger." In an
apparently unrelated incident on Sunday, a heavily armed man from
Indiana who said he was headed to a Los Angeles-area gay pride festival
was arrested in nearby Santa Monica, California, where police found guns
and chemicals to make explosives in his car.
(Additional reporting by Barbara Liston in Orlando, Fla., Zachary
Fagenson in Port St. Lucie, Fla., Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem,
N.C., Keith Coffman in Denver and Jonathan Landay, Mark Hosenball,
Ginger Gibson and Yeganeh Torbati in Washington; Writing by Scott
Malone, Daniel Wallis and Steve Gorman; Editing by Alistair Bell and
Peter Cooney)
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