Orlando gunman's ‘first direct contact was a pledge of loyalty to IS’

US authorities are investigating whether anyone helped the gunman who massacred 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, but said they did not believe anyone connected to the shooting posed a current danger to the public.

The FBI and other agencies were looking at evidence inside and in the closed-off streets around the Pulse nightclub, where a shooter pledging allegiance to Islamic State (IS) carried out the deadliest mass shooting in US history, and the worst attack on US soil since September 11, 2001.

The gunman, Omar Mateen, a New York-born Florida resident and US citizen who was the son of Afghan immigrants, was shot and killed by police who stormed the club early on Sunday morning with armoured cars after a three-hour siege.