A Tesla Cybertruck exploded exterior a lodge belonging to US President-elect Donald Trump in Las Vegas, killing a minimum of one particular person and wounding seven, police mentioned on Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden mentioned authorities had been investigating any hyperlinks between the Las Vegas explosion and an attack earlier on Wednesday in New Orleans, the place a truck plowed right into a crowd of New Year’s revelers, killing a minimum of 15.

However, Biden cautioned that no such hyperlinks had but been discovered.

Las Vegas police launched this picture of the Tesla Cybertruck after the blast

Isolated incident

The FBI and native regulation enforcement mentioned they believed the Tesla blast was an remoted incident, however they had been investigating whether or not it was an “act of terrorism.”

The electrical automobile – made by the corporate owned by Trump backer Elon Musk – pulled as much as the Trump International Hotel’s glass entrance earlier than a “large explosion,” Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill informed reporters.

Video footage exhibits the stainless-steel truck parked on the lodge entrance earlier than bursting into flames, adopted by smaller explosions that appeared much like fireworks.

McMahill mentioned there was “one deceased individual inside the Cybertruck,” whereas seven individuals obtained “minor” accidents.

He mentioned the lodge had been evacuated.

He informed a later information convention that the again of the truck contained gasoline and tenting gas canisters, in addition to “large firework mortars.”

McMahill additionally mentioned the truth 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 doorways of the lodge, just some ft away, “were not even broken by that blast.”

Biden mentioned authorities had been probing “any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans.”

“Thus far, there’s nothing to report on that score,” he mentioned.

FBI agent Jeremy Schwartz described the Las Vegas blast as “an isolated incident.”

He mentioned that an FBI joint terrorism job pressure was conducting the investigation with two most important objectives – to verify the identification of the “subject involved in this incident” and to find out “whether this was an act of terrorism or not.”

In a publish on X, Elon Musk wrote Tesla is investigating the matter.

”We have now confirmed that the explosion was brought on by very giant fireworks and/or a bomb carried within the mattress of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the automobile itself,” Musk wrote.

Concerns over Donald Trump-Elon Musk hyperlink

There had been indications that the suspect within the New Orleans assault had been impressed by the Islamic State group, Biden mentioned.

McMahill mentioned they’d “no indication” to date that the blast in Las Vegas had any comparable hyperlinks to the jihadist group.

However, he added: “It’s a Tesla truck, and we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Donald 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,” McMahill mentioned.

Musk, who backed Trump within the November election and was named by the Republican to go up a fee to trim authorities spending, mentioned in a publish on his social media platform X that the explosion was “unrelated to the vehicle itself.”

He mentioned earlier the “whole Tesla senior team” was investigating the blast, including: “We’ve never seen anything like this.”

The truck had been rented in Colorado via the carsharing firm Turo, police mentioned – the identical app that was used to hire the automobile within the New Orleans assault.

McMahill mentioned that was a “coincidence… that we have to continue to look in to.”

A spokesperson for the app, utilized by thousands and thousands of individuals within the United States, mentioned they had been working with regulation enforcement, however that neither renter “had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.”

Will the Donald Trump-Elon Muck bromance final the following presidential time period?

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By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse