a dead, investigating a “possible connection” with New Orleans

A Tesla Cybertruck vehicle, Elon Musk’s brand pickup, exploded Wednesday in front of the Trump hotel in Las Vegas, killing one person. Authorities are investigating whether there is a link to the New Orleans attack, according to Joe Biden.

“There is a deceased person inside the Cybertruck”said Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas police, during a press conference, specifying that seven other people were suffering from “minor injuries”.

During a speech Wednesday evening, Joe Biden confirmed that authorities were investigating whether there was “some possible connection” between this explosion and the deadly attack in New Orleans, adding that nothing indicated ” so far “. “We believe this is an isolated event”declared, for his part, Jeremy Schwartz, FBI agent.

A huge 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 Joe Biden’s statement, Elon Musk had claimed on X that he could confirm that the explosion had “was caused by large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the back of the rented Cybertruck and is not linked to the vehicle itself”without supporting his point.

“We have never seen anything like this”had 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 the elected president.

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 a “act of terrorism” according to the federal police, left at least 15 dead and around thirty injured.

Investigators said they found a flag of the Islamic State terrorist group 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 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, estimating 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. If you watch this video, you’ll see that the glass doors of the Trump Hotel weren’t even shattered by the explosion.”he said.