According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Clark County officials, the fire started on Wednesday at around 8:40 am local time (14:40 GMT) in the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas’s valet area.
A 2024 Cybertruck approached the front of the hotel, according to the report. And in fact, I can tell you, it pulled right up to the glass entrance doors to the hotel”, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference. A significant explosion from the truck occurs after we start to see smoke coming from the car.
Details are still emerging, and the cause of the explosion has yet to be confirmed by officials.
“I know you have a lot of questions”, Jeremy Schwartz, the acting special agent in charge of the Las Vegas office for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), told reporters. “We don’t have a lot of answers”.
A person was discovered dead inside the truck, according to authorities, who claimed it appeared to be carrying fireworks. A number of people received minor injuries close to the explosion.
Witnesses’ accounts to The Associated Press included three explosions that came from the fire, according to one witness, Ana Bruce.
“The first one]happened] where we saw the fire”, Bruce said. The third one, I believe, was the battery or something similar, and the third was the massive one that caused the entire area to smoke and was the catalyst for the evacuation and stay-out.”
Authorities are looking into what the incident occurred in hours after a car-ramming attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, that left at least 10 people dead.
At the time of the car-ramming, the suspect is alleged to have been carrying IEDs or improvised explosives in his truck.
Sheriff McMahill acknowledged that his police “were very aware of what took place in New Orleans” and that the incident might help with their investigation. However, he made a point of separating the two.
We are taking all the necessary precautions to keep our community safe, as you can imagine, with an explosion on this iconic Las Vegas Boulevard. We’re looking for secondary devices”, McMahill said at the news conference, adding that there did not appear to be any further threat to the community.
Trump is preparing to re-elect for a second term on January 20 as a result of the Cybertruck explosion.
Part of his incoming administration includes close advisers, like tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whom Trump has tapped to co-lead a yet-to-be-founded, nongovernmental body called the Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump has made a pitch for the new organization’s role as a federal government advisory panel.
In a social media post, Musk said that Tesla, the electric vehicle company he founded, was looking into Wednesday’s incident.
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