A Tesla Cybertruck vehicle, Elon Musk’s brand pickup, exploded Wednesday in front of the Trump hotel in Las Vegas.
AFP
A Tesla Cybertruck, Elon Musk’s pickup truck, exploded in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday, killing one person, with authorities investigating whether there was a link to the attack on New Orleans, according to Joe Biden.
“There is a deceased person inside the Cybertruck,” Las Vegas Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference, adding that seven other people suffered “minor injuries.”
During a short 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 did not indicate “until now”.
“We believe this is an isolated event,” said FBI agent Jeremy Schwartz.
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 in large format, 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 extra-governmental mission of deregulation and reduction of public spending in the future government of president-elect.
No visible IS flag
This explosion comes a few hours after a former American soldier, identified by the FBI as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, is suspected of having driven into the crowd at the wheel of his vehicle 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.
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.
The rear of the vehicle contained cans of gasoline and “large fireworks mortars,” he said, estimating that the structure of the Cybertruck had “helped limit the damage.”
“Most of the explosion went through the vehicle from the top and came out. If you watch this video, you will see that the glass doors of the Trump hotel were not even shattered by the explosion,” he said.
(afp)
