One person died and seven others were injured after a Tesla Cybertruck packed with fireworks and gas canisters exploded outside president-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel on Wednesday, with officials saying they were investigating potential motives for the incident.
Las Vegas police said that one person died inside the futuristic-looking pickup truck, which also contained camp fuel canisters, while seven people nearby suffered minor injuries.
“This is a Tesla truck, and we know that Elon Musk is working with president-elect Trump, and it’s the Trump Tower,” police department sheriff Kevin McMahill said when reporters asked about possible political connections.
“So there’s obviously things to be concerned about and it’s something we continue to look at.”
McMahill said that authorities knew the identity of the person who rented the truck using the Turo app in Colorado, but were not releasing the name until investigators determine if it was the same person who died.
Video presented at an afternoon news conference showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, cannisters and other explosive devices crowded into the back of the pickup. The truck bed walls were still intact because the blast shot straight up rather than to the sides.
McMahill said video captured at Tesla charging stations provided by Musk helped authorities track the vehicle’s journey. The vehicle arrived in Las Vegas at about 7.30am then drove about an hour later into the valet area of the Trump International Hotel, where it sat for 15 to 20 seconds before the explosion occurred.
Authorities on Wednesday were still working to get the body out of the vehicle and start processing the evidence inside.
“Our number one goal is to ensure that we have the proper identification of the subject involved in this incident,” said Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas office. “Following that, our second objective is to determine whether this was an act of terrorism or not.”
The truck explosion came hours after a driver rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack and police believe the driver was not acting alone.
US president Joe Biden said on Wednesday that law enforcement was investigating whether there were any links between the New Orleans truck and the Tesla explosion.
Shortly after the incident, Musk said on X, which he also owns, that “the whole Tesla senior team” was investigating what happened and “we’ve never seen anything like this.” His remarks included another post referring to a “detonation” when the car exploded.
Musk later posted again, saying: “We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself.”
He subsequently speculated that the incident was “likely to be a terrorist attack” and posed a question about whether there was a link with the New Orleans mass killing, which the authorities have said they are treating as a terrorist incident.
There had been no official, public confirmation of any links to terrorism early on Wednesday evening.
Musk became a prominent supporter and donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign this year. He shook things up when he began appearing at the Republican’s election rallies in the fall and was treated like a superstar by Trump, then became a close adviser to the president-elect after Trump beat the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, in November. Harris had taken over from Biden when the latter dropped out of his re-election race in the summer.
Trump named Musk as joint head of a newly-created entity called the “department of government efficiency” that will seek to cut costs from the federal government machinery once the new administration is sworn in on 20 January.
The controversial decision has brought questions about potential conflicts of interest and national security concerns regarding Musk’s US and global business interests and federal government business. There is very little detail about the planned structure or constitutional foundation of creating such a “department”.
A county spokesperson said in a statement that the fire in the valet parking area of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas was reported at 8.40am local time.
No cause was given and details were minimal.
In Las Vegas, witness Ana Bruce, visiting from Brazil, said she heard three explosions.
“The first one where we saw the fire, the second one, I guess, was the battery or something like that, and the third was the big one that smoked the entire area and was the moment when everyone was told to evacuate and stay away,” Bruce said.
Her travel companion, Alcides Antunes, showed video he took of flames lapping the sides of the silver-colored vehicle.
Eric Trump, a son of the president-elect and executive vice-president of the Trump Organization, posted about the fire on the social media platform X. He praised the fire department and local law enforcement “for their swift response and professionalism”.
The 64-story hotel is just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and across the street from the Fashion Show Las Vegas shopping mall.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
