Obama says no evidence Orlando attack was 'directed' from abroad

President Barack Obama said on Monday there was no evidence that the massacre of 49 people in a Florida nightclub was directed from abroad or was part of a larger plot.

After being briefed on America's most deadly mass shooting in modern times by top security aides, President Obama said "we don't yet know" the shooter's motivations.

Mr Obama said 29-year-old Omar Mateen did appear to have been "inspired by various extremist information that was disseminated over the Internet". He added: "At this stage we see no clear evidence that he was directed externally."

​"It does appear that at the last minute he announced allegiance to ISIL, but there is no evidence so far that he was in fact directed by them," he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.