At least one person was killed and seven wounded when a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside a hotel belonging to US President-elect Donald Trump in Las Vegas, police said Wednesday.
The electric vehicle pulled up to the Trump International Hotel’s glass entrance before a “large explosion,” Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters.
Video footage shows the stainless steel truck parked at the hotel entrance before bursting into flames, followed by smaller explosions that appeared similar to fireworks.
McMahill said there was “one deceased individual inside the Cybertruck” while seven people received “minor” injuries. He said the hotel had been evacuated.
US President Joe Biden said authorities were investigating any possible link between the blast and an attack earlier Wednesday in New Orleans, in which a truck rammed a crowd, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens.
“Thus far, there’s nothing to report on that score,” Biden said.
FBI agent Jeremy Schwartz described the Las Vegas blast as “an isolated incident,” adding: “We do not believe that there’s a bunch of folks out there supporting this or helping this.”
Tesla chief Elon Musk said that the explosion was “caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck,” adding in a post on X that it was “unrelated to the vehicle itself.”
Earlier, he said the “whole Tesla senior team” was investigating the blast, adding: “We’ve never seen anything like this.”
Police said they are still working to establish the cause of the explosion. US media including NBC and CBS reported that authorities were investigating it as a potential terror attack, citing unnamed sources.
There had been indications that the suspect in the New Orleans attack had been inspired by the Islamic State group, Biden said.
McMahill said that so far they had “no indication” that the blast in Las Vegas had any similar links to the Islamic State group.
However, he added, “It’s a Tesla truck, and we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and it’s the Trump tower. So there’s obviously things to be concerned about there and that’s something we continue to look at.”
Musk, who backed Trump in the November election and was named by the Republican to head up a commission to trim government spending, said he would post more information “as soon as we learn anything.”
Source: AFP
--Agencies
