Tesla Cybertruck explodes outside Trump hotel

A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside a hotel belonging to US President-elect Donald Trump in Las Vegas, killing at least one person and wounding seven.

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 plowed into a crowd of New Year’s revelers, killing at least 15.

However, Biden cautioned that no such links had yet been found. The FBI and local law enforcement said they believed the Tesla blast was an isolated incident, but they were investigating whether it was an “act of terrorism.”

The electric vehicle – made by the company owned by Trump backer Elon Musk – 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 told a later news conference that the back of the truck contained gasoline, camping fuel canisters and “large firework mortars.”

McMahill also said 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.”  

Biden said authorities were probing “possible connection with the attack in New Orleans.”

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

He said that a joint terrorism task force was investigating with two main goals – to confirm the identity of the “subject involved” and “whether this was an act of terrorism.”

There had been indications that the suspect in the New Orleans attack had been inspired by the Islamic State group, Biden said. 

McMahill said they had “no indication” so far.
However, he added: “It’s a Tesla truck, and we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump.”

Musk, who backed Trump in the November election and was named by the Republican to head up a commission to trim government spending, said in a post on his social media platform X that the explosion was “unrelated to the vehicle itself.”

The truck had been rented in Colorado through Turo, police said – the same app that was used in the New Orleans attack. A spokesperson for the app, said that neither renter “had a criminal background.”
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE