Omar Mateen: First pictures of Orlando nightclub gunman whose attack killed 50 people

The series of selfies has been verified as showing Mateen by his ex-wife

Omar Mateen, who has been identified as the Orlando gunman by police (Myspace)

This series of selfies are understood to have been taken by the man behind the worst mass shooting in US history at an Orlando gay club on Saturday night.

Omar Mateen has been identified by police as the gunman who killed at least 50 people and wounded 53 more when he opened fire on the busy Pulse nightclub with an AR-15 assault rifle.

His ex-wife has spoken anonymously to describe how the 29-year-old beat her during their brief marriage from 2009 to 2011.

Mateen worked as a security guard in Fort Pierce, Florida (Myspace)

The suspect's father says his son reacted angrily to seeing gay men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago (Myspace)

Speaking to The Washington Post, Mateen's ex-wife has described him as 'not a stable person' (Myspace)

And shown the pictures, which had been circulating on social media, she confirmed that they were indeed from Mateen's own Myspace account.

Mateen was a security guard in Fort Pierce, Florida, and police believe he rented a car and drove to Orlando to carry out the attack.

The FBI has said the massacre is being investigated for possible links to radical Islamism, but Mateen's father has told NBC "this was not about religion", describing his son as a homophobe.

"He was not a stable person," said the ex-wife, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety in the wake of the mass shooting.

"He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn't finished or something like that."