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By David Shepardson, Karen Brettel and Rhonda Churchill
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – A Tesla (NASDAQ: ) Cybertruck burst into flames at the front door of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, killing the driver and injuring seven others, and the FBI is investigating whether the explosion was an act of terrorism, officials said. .
Videos taken by witnesses inside and outside the hotel show the vehicle sitting outside the hotel exploding and flames pouring out of it.
The incident occurred when a man drove a truck into a crowd of people at a New Year’s Eve party in New Orleans, killing 15 people.
The Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is part of the Trump Organization, which will return to the White House on January 20. Elon Musk, CEO of Donald Trump’s company Tesla, has been a key supporter of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. And he is also an adviser to the incoming president.
“Obviously the cyber trail, the Trump hotel — there’s a lot of questions for us to answer,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at an afternoon press conference.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeremy Schwartz later told reporters that it was not immediately clear whether the explosion was an act of terrorism.
“I know everybody’s interested in that term, and I’m trying to see if we can say, ‘Hey, this is a terrorist attack.’ That’s our goal, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Schwartz said.
He added that the FBI has identified the driver of the rented vehicle in Colorado, but is not yet ready to officially identify the driver.
Musk said the explosion had nothing to do with the cyber tract.
“We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and had nothing to do with the vehicle,” Musk said in a post on X. All vehicle telemetry was positive, he said. At the time of the explosion.”
Telemetry involves the automatic collection of data from remote sources, which can then be analyzed by transmitting it back to a central source.
In the year One person was found dead in a 2024 model-year Cybertruck and seven people suffered minor injuries in the explosion, McMahill said. He added that both the Cybertruck and the vehicle used in the New Orleans attack were rented by the car-sharing service Turo.
McMahill said the cyber truck went up to the Trump building at 8:40 a.m. local time (1640 GMT). He said he was reminded of the New Orleans shooting earlier Wednesday. The FBI says an explosive device was found in the vehicle used in the New Orleans attack.
Las Vegas firefighters responded four minutes after the vehicle was reported on fire and extinguished it. Two of the injured were taken to hospitals with minor injuries. The Trump Hotel was evacuated after the attack and most of the guests were moved to another hotel.
Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and Trump’s son-in-law, posted about the situation on X, writing, “There was an electrical vehicle fire at the Trump Las Vegas Porte Coquier today.” Covered entrance to the building.
