Orlando shooting: Killer 'called TV station as he carried out deadly attack'

The man who attacked an Orlando nightclub leaving 49 people dead called a TV station as he carried out the deadly massacre, it has been claimed.

Orlando's News 13 say Omar Mateen phoned them about 45 minutes after the shooting at the Pulse nightclub began.

Producer Matthew Gentili said he took Mateen's call at 2.45am on the day of the shooting.

"I answered the phone as I always do: 'News 13, this is Matt,'" he said, according to a report on the News 13 website.

"And on the other end, I heard, 'Do you know about the shooting?'"

When Mr Gentili told the caller he was aware of the incident he says the man told him he was the shooter.

The caller claimed: "I'm the shooter. It's me. I am the shooter'."

Mr Gentili said the man then spoke in what he thought was Arabic.

"Whatever language he was speaking, he knew it. And he was speaking it very quickly," Mr Gentili said.

"And that is when I said to him, 'Sir. Please. Speak in English, please'."

Mr Gentili said the caller stopped and then said: "I did it for ISIS. I did it for the Islamic State."

When Gentili asked him where he was calling from the caller said it was none of his business and put the phone down.

Later Gentili was interviewed at home by the FBI.

The FBI has refused to confirm whether Gentili spoke to Mateen, but News 13 says it researched the caller's number and matched it to Mateen.