(Los Angeles) A Cybertruck vehicle, the van of Elon Musk’s Tesla company, exploded Wednesday in front of the Trump hotel in Las Vegas, killing one person, as authorities investigated whether there was a link with the attack on New Orleans, according to Joe Biden.
Posted at 3:24 p.m.
Updated at 8:00 p.m.
“There is one person dead inside the Cybertruck,” Las Vegas Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference, adding that seven other people suffered “minor injuries.”
During a speech on Wednesday evening, Joe Biden confirmed that authorities were investigating whether there was “any possible connection” between this explosion and the deadly attack in New Orleans, with the US president adding that nothing indicated “until now”.
“We believe this is an isolated event,” said FBI agent Jeremy Schwartz.
PHOTO RONDA CHURCHILL, REUTERS
The police officer said seven people suffered “minor injuries” following what he described as a “large explosion.”
In images posted on social networks, a gray Cybertruck electric vehicle, parked in front of the entrance to the hotel where the name “Trump” is displayed large, explodes in a huge cloud of smoke.
Before Mr. Biden’s statement, Elon Musk had claimed on to the vehicle itself”, without supporting his point.
“We have never seen anything like this,” initially declared the boss of Tesla, an ally of Donald Trump, also responsible for an extragovernmental mission of deregulation and reduction of public spending in the future government of the president-elect. .
This explosion comes a few hours after a former American soldier, identified by the FBI as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, is suspected of having rushed into the crowd in New Orleans. This attack, treated as an “act of terrorism” according to the federal police, left at least 15 dead and around thirty injured.
Investigators said they found an Islamic State group flag in the vehicle.
PHOTO RONDA CHURCHILL, REUTERS
A Cybertruck vehicle, the van of Elon Musk’s Tesla company, exploded Wednesday morning in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.
Questioned by the press, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said there was “no indication” to establish a link between the explosion in front of the Trump hotel and the Islamic State (IS) group. .
“There is no visible IS flag as was the case in New Orleans,” the police officer said.
“As you can imagine, with an explosion here on our iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking every precaution to keep our community safe,” McMahill said earlier.
