One person was killed and seven were injured after a Cybertruck burst into flames Wednesday morning just outside the glass doors of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, police and FBI officials say the type of vehicle and the location of the fire raise many questions.
The incident happened a few hours after a driver in New Orleans killed 15 people and injured dozens after he rammed his truck into a crowd celebrating New Year's Eve. The FBI is investigating at least one suspected improvised explosive device found at the scene of a suspected terrorist attack.
“As you can imagine, with an explosion here in an iconic Las Vegas neighborhood, we are taking every step we have to take to keep our community safe,” said Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. “We are looking for second-hand equipment. We're taking it slow and we're going to make sure we stay safe in our community.”
McMahill said there does not appear to be any further threat due to the car explosion, which left the driver of the unknown car dead and seven people with minor injuries. He urged the public to stay away from the area.
McMahill said they are investigating multiple leads, but could not release more details about the incident, which was reported at 8:40 a.m. Wednesday.
“But obviously the Cybertruck … the Trump hotel — there are a lot of questions that we have to answer as we move forward with that,” he said.
Cybertrucks are made by Elon Musk's company, Tesla. Musk is part of President-elect Donald Trump's inner circle. That has caused concern on social media that it was a politically motivated attack.
Jeremy Schwartz, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Las Vegas office, said there are still many unanswered questions but they are using additional resources to “find out what happened.”
McMahill said the 2024 Cybertruck arrived in front of the hotel “and arrived at the hotel's glass front doors.”
“We saw smoke coming from the car, and then there was a huge explosion coming from the truck,” McMahill said.
A video posted on X by a person who says they were near the front of the hotel at the time of the explosion shows a silver Cybertruck filled with a sound that sounds like fireworks going off.
Eric Trump, one of the president-elect's sons, thanked first responders for their “quick and professional response.”
“The safety and well-being of our guests and employees remains our top priority,” he wrote on X.
Musk, who owns the X, wrote on social media that “the entire Tesla team is investigating this matter.”
“We have never seen anything like this,” he added.
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