One person died and seven others were injured Wednesday when a Tesla Cybertruck that appeared to be carrying fireworks caught fire and exploded outside U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel, authorities said.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and Clark County Fire Department officials told a news conference that a person died inside the futuristic-looking pickup truck and they were working to get the body out. Seven people nearby had minor injuries and several were taken to a hospital.
The fire in the valet area of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas was reported at 8:40 a.m., a county spokesperson said in a statement.
According to a law enforcement official, the truck was rented via the Turo app and appeared to have a load of fireworks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
A Turo spokesperson did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Authorities, Tesla investigating
Law enforcement officials have not ruled out terrorism as a possible motive, a person familiar with the matter said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation.
“I know you have a lot of questions,” Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent in charge for the FBI’s Las Vegas office, told reporters. “We don’t have a lot of answers.”
President Joe Biden was briefed on the explosion, which came hours after a driver rammed a truck into a crowd in the French Quarter in New Orleans early on New Year’s Day, killing 15 people and injuring dozens of others. The suspect was killed in a shootout with police.
“We’re tracking the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas,” Biden said. “Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there’s any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote in a statement on X, the social media platform he owns, that Tesla is investigating the matter.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” Musk wrote.
Witness heard 3Â explosions
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-coloured vehicle.
The 64-storey hotel is just off the Las Vegas Strip and across the street from the Fashion Show Las Vegas shopping mall.
Eric Trump, a son of the president-elect and executive vice-president of the Trump Organization, posted about the fire on X, praising the fire department and local law enforcement “for their swift response and professionalism.”
