This explosion occurs in a tense context in the United States, marked by an attack in New Orleans.
A Tesla Cybertruck vehicle, Elon Musk’s brand pickup, exploded Wednesday morning in front of the Trump hotel in Las Vegas, causing the death of one person and slightly injuring seven othersannounced the local police.
«There is a deceased person inside the Cybertruck“, declared Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas police, during a press conference broadcast by ABC. The police officer also mentions seven people suffering from “minor injuries”.
FBI opens investigation
The FBI did not provide details on the identity of the driver of the vehicle. Las Vegas Police Chief Kevin McMahill said authorities knew the name of the person who rented the pickup and acknowledged that a name was circulating online. He also said it was important that the individual’s family was informed and that “we are 100% sure of their identification.”
The Cybertruck was rented in Colorado and arrived in Las Vegas around 7:30 a.m. local time. The truck then stopped in front of the Trump Hotel and exploded 20 seconds later.
The pickup was rented through the same platform used to rent the car that drove into a crowd in Louisiana on Wednesday. Fifteen people were killed in this vehicle-ramming attack in a busy neighborhood of New Orleans.
During a short speech Wednesday evening, Joe Biden confirmed 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 this “until now”.
“We are not excluding anything,” said Mr. McMahill. However, there is currently no evidence of a link between the explosion and the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, as is the case for the New Orleans attack.
The boss of Tesla, Elon Musk, indicated via his own social network X that the explosion was “caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the Cybertruck and has nothing to do with the vehicle as such. The billionaire, however, did not no mention of proof or from a source confirming this information.
