Fireworks and gas tanks detonated inside the truck, killing a person inside and injuring seven passersby.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
A Tesla Cybertruck filled with fireworks, camping fuel, and gas tanks exploded Wednesday morning in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas in an incident the authorities are calling a possible terror attack.
The futuristic-looking vehicle turned into fireball just after 8:40 a.m., killing the person inside and injuring seven people on the street.
All of the victims were initially reported to be in stable condition; some have already been released from hospital.
The authorities know the identity of the driver but are not releasing the information as yet to the public.
The vehicle was rented in Colorado and driven to the famed casino city, entering a battery-charging station when arriving at 7:30. It was then driven up and down Las Vegas Boulevard for the next hour before the driver parked it in front of the hotel.
Seconds later, it blew up, with witnesses saying that they heard and felt several loud explosions, with some being thrown off their feet by the powerful blasts.
CNN cited on Thursday “a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation” as saying that the authorities believe all the flammable materials were linked together and the driver could control their detonation.
The FBI is investigating whether the incident could be classified as an act of terrorism, said Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent in charge of the agency’s local office. As of now, they believe it was an “isolated incident.”
There is one link to another incident already labeled as a terror attack that was carried out hours earlier in New Orleans, where a man who had declared his allegiance to the Muslim ISIS extremist group, Shamsud Din Jabbar, plowed a truck into New Year’s revelers in New Orleans and shot several, murdering at least 15 people and injuring 30 before being killed by police.
Both trucks were rented through the Turo online car rental company.
However, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said that it was a “coincidence” and that “there is no further threat to the community.”
The company itself said no red flags had popped up when the vehicles were being rented.
“We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat,” a company spokesperson said.
Tesla’s multi-billionaire owner Elon Musk defended his Cybertruck’s reputation, writing on X that the blast was “unrelated to the vehicle itself” and that “all vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion.”
He also took credit for the low number of victims, adding, “The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle,” as the frame of the truck held firm, which channelled the blast upward instead of outward. “Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.”