ENGLISH cricketers Stuart Meaker, Tom Curran and Jade Dernbach confirmed they are safe in Las Vegas.
At least 59 people were killed after a shooting in Nevada on Sunday night.
And the cricket trio were all in Las Vegas when the devastating gun attack occurred.
Surrey player Meaker had been in their hotel’s casino at the opposite end of the strip to the shooting when he and the others started getting messages from concerned loved ones.
The 28-year-old said they immediately decided to get upstairs to their rooms in the Cosmopolitan hotel, from where they could see hundreds of police cars blocking off streets and preventing people from roaming along the famed Las Vegas Strip.
He told the Press Association: “Immediately you start to panic. We were on the bottom floor. We were thinking ‘are they (the attacker) going along the strip into the casinos? Are they at a specific place? How many people?’
“We didn’t know so we just thought, ‘we’re not taking the risk we’re going straight upstairs.”
He added: “As soon as we heard again another terrorist attack, which is exactly what it is, we thought ‘we’re not sticking around, let’s get safe where we are, in our rooms, until we can really find out what’s going on.”
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Craziest experience last night in Vegas. So so sad but we are all okay! Praying for everyone affected
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— Tom Curran (@_TC59) October 2, 2017
He said he was able to reassure those getting in touch, including fiancee Bethan Moore, relatively early on that he was ok but added that the seriousness of what happened did not become apparent until the final death toll was reported.
Meaker, who is originally from South Africa but currently lives in London, is on his first trip to Las Vegas, ahead of his wedding later this month and described it as a "weird" experience to have been through.
He said: "It's a pretty weird thing to say that we were out in Vegas during one of the biggest mass shootings in American history to be honest.
The attack on an outdoor music show, which left at least 59 people dead and 527 more injured, had "definitely changed our mood, definitely" he added, and caused a "sombre" atmosphere.
He said: "(Earlier today) there were clearly some people who were quite emotional walking around and you just got the sense that some people in and around where we are have been quite badly affected by it.
"We were talking to a couple in the pool where we are now, yesterday. They were on their way to the concert and we have no idea whether they are fine or not, so it's quite a sombre atmosphere."
Meaker said he and his friends, who are due to fly to Los Angeles on Tuesday, are unsure as to how to spend the rest of the break.
He said: "We don't really feel like we can go out and have a massive party because a lot of people's worlds have just changed and not for the better."
Fellow cricketers Dernbach and Curran are also in the city but with a separate group, Meaker said.
Asked about gun laws in light of what happened Meaker said he did not feel it is his place to say "because I don't live in America and it's not my country".
But he added: "The problem is when you're a visitor coming to somewhere like Las Vegas and you are potentially involved in an incident like this it's hard not to have an opinion as to whether people should be allowed to roam around with assault rifles and being able to purchase them with simply just an ID."
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