A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside a hotel belonging to US President-elect Donald Trump in Las Vegas, killing one and injuring seven, according to police.
US President Joe Biden said authorities were investigating any links between the Las Vegas explosion and an attack earlier Wednesday in New Orleans, where a truck ploughed into a crowd of New Year’s revellers, killing at least 15.
However, Biden cautioned that no such links had yet been established.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement officials said they believed the Tesla burst was a solitary occurrence, but they were looking into whether it was an “act of terrorism.”
The electric car, manufactured by Elon Musk’s business, approached the glass entryway of the Trump International Hotel before a “large explosion,” Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters.
Video footage shows the stainless steel vehicle parked at the hotel door before erupting into flames, followed by smaller explosions that resembled fireworks.
McMahill stated that there was “one deceased individual inside the Cybertruck,” while seven people sustained “minor” injuries. He claimed the hotel had been evacuated.
He stated at a later press conference that the truck’s rear carried petrol and camping fuel canisters, as well as ‘big firework mortars.’
McMahill also stated that the fact that it was a Cybertruck “really limited the damage… because it had most of the blast go up through the truck and out,” noting that the glass doors of the hotel, just a few feet away, “were not even broken by that blast.”
Biden stated that authorities were probing “any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans.”
“Thus far, there’s nothing to report on that score,” he said.
FBI agent Jeremy Schwartz described the Las Vegas blast as “an isolated incident.”
He disclosed that an FBI joint terrorism task force was investigating with two main goals—to confirm the identity of the “subject involved in this incident” and to determine “whether this was an act of terrorism or not.”
