'Something has changed': US Country star in Vegas shooting

Country star Jason Aldean, who was performing in Las Vegas when a gunman opened fire on the crowd at his open air concert, voiced fear Tuesday at the direction of the United States and urged national unity.

"Something has changed in this country and in this world lately that is scary to see. This world is becoming the kind of place I am afraid to raise my children in," the 40-year-old singer wrote on Instagram.

Aldean, expressing himself for the second time since 59 people were killed Sunday evening in the deadliest shooting in modern US history, called for an end to divisions.

"At the end of the day we aren't Democrats or Republicans, whites or blacks, men or women. We are all humans and we are all Americans and it's time to start acting like it and stand together as ONE!" he wrote.

"That is the only way we will ever get this country to be better than it has ever been, but we have a long way to go and we have to start now," said Aldean, in a possible echo of President Donald Trump's campaign slogan.

A 64-year-old retired accountant opened fire from a hotel room just as Aldean was playing his headlining set at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip.

Aldean -- whose songs, often odes to rural American values, have topped the country charts for more than a decade -- has in the past said he understood Trump's appeal while steering clear of overt political commentary.

Source: AFP