President Joe Biden said on the night of Wednesday, January 1, that there was no indication “so far” that there was a link to the car-ramming attack in New Orleans. The investigation continues.
Symbolic act or simple coincidence? A Tesla Cybertruck vehicle, the pick-up from the brand of Elon Musk – billionaire charged with an extragovernmental mission in the service of the future administration of the president-elect – exploded on Wednesday January 1 in front of the Trump hotel in Las Vegas, causing the death of a person. Authorities have since been investigating whether there is a link to the New Orleans attack, described as “terrorist” by the FBI. “There is a dead person inside the Cybertruck,” Las Vegas Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference, adding that seven other people were suffering from “minor injuries”.
During a speech 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, the American president adding that nothing indicated “so far”. “We believe this is an isolated event,” for his part declared Jeremy Schwartz, an FBI agent.
In images posted on social networks, the gray Cybertruck electric vehicle, parked in front of the entrance to the hotel where the name «Trump» appears large, explodes in a huge cloud of smoke. An explosion “caused by large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the back of the rented Cybertruck and not linked to the vehicle itself”, said Elon Musk on Wednesday evening on X, without supporting his statement. “We’ve never seen this,” had initially declared the boss of Tesla, ally of Donald Trump, also responsible
“No indication” of link with ISIS
The explosion comes a few hours after a former American soldier, identified by the FBI as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, is suspected of having driven his vehicle into a crowd in New Orleans. The attack, treated as “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.
Questioned by the press, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said there was no “no indication” allowing a link to be established between the explosion in front of the Trump hotel and the Islamic State (IS) group. “There is no visible ISIS flag like there was in New Orleans,” said the police officer. “As you can imagine, with an explosion here on our iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking every precaution to keep our community safe,” Kevin McMahill had declared a little earlier.
The rear of the vehicle contained cans of gasoline and “large fireworks mortars”, he indicated, believing that the structure of the Cybertruck had “permit to limit the damage”. “Most of the explosion passed through the [véhicule] from the top and came out. […] The glass doors of the Trump hotel were not even shattered by the explosion,” he said.
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