A Tesla Cybertruck exploded and burst into flames just outside the entrance to the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, killing one person inside and injuring several others standing nearby, local officials said. Announced.
The suspicious explosion is being investigated as a possible terrorist attack, three senior police officials briefed on the matter told NBC News. A motive has not yet been determined.
The explosion came after the driver of a rented pickup truck with an ISIS flag plowed into New Year’s Eve revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 15 people and injuring more than 30, police said. It happened hours after the shooting.
Clark County/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the pickup truck and the Tesla involved in the Las Vegas explosion were rented from the same company, Touro.
Asked at a press conference whether the two incidents were related, McMahill said, “I don’t know.” “But we are investigating whether there is connectivity.”
Tullo said in a statement that the company is actively assisting investigators.
“We do not believe that any of the tenants involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had criminal histories that would qualify them as a security threat,” the company said in a statement.
McMahill said authorities know the Tesla was rented in Colorado, but refused to release the names of the people who died in the inferno.
“We know who rented this truck,” he said, adding that no links to ISIS or other terrorist organizations have been found.
Jeremy Schwartz, acting FBI special agent in charge of the investigation, added: “We believe this is an isolated incident.”
McMahill credited authorities with the help of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who provided a video of the Cybertruck at a Tesla charging station, and with unlocking the auto-locked truck in the explosion. He said he was able to trace the route the Tesla car took to Las Vegas.
The Tesla arrived in Las Vegas at 7:30 a.m. and exploded an hour later, about 15 seconds after arriving at the hotel, the sheriff’s office said.
McMahill showed video of the explosion at an evening press conference. “Therefore, the person in the truck is clearly deceased,” he said.
Earlier, Musk, who is also a top adviser to President Trump, insisted to X that the explosion had nothing to do with the vehicle.
“We can confirm that this explosion was caused by a very large firework or bomb that was in the back of the rented Cybertruck and was not related to the vehicle itself,” Musk said. “All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion.”
McMahill confirmed there was a gas can and a large fireworks mortar in the back of the truck.
“We don’t know how it started,” the sheriff said. “We haven’t been able to process the vehicle yet.”
McMahill also reiterated that “there appears to be no further threat to our community at this time.”
Meanwhile, in New York City, additional police officers were placed at Trump Tower as a precaution and a security perimeter was expanded to keep the public and traffic away from the building, an NYPD spokesperson said.
Security has also been increased at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, local police confirmed.
Police said the explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas was reported around 8:40 a.m. local time.
“I heard that the 2024 Cybertruck was parked in front of the hotel, and I can tell you that it actually stopped very close to the glass entrance door of the hotel,” McMahill said at an earlier press conference. “Smoke started coming from the vehicle and then we saw an explosion coming from the truck.”
Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Thomas Touchstone said that as first responders began extinguishing the fire, they “simultaneously noticed multiple injured people surrounding the vehicle.”
Two of the seven injured were taken to the University of Southern Nevada Medical Center in Las Vegas, Touchstone said. However, the injuries to all seven people are believed to be minor.
