Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel kills driver, Musk calls it a 'terrorist attack'

Photo : Instagram / @lasvegaslocally

A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday, killing the driver and hurting seven others. The FBI is looking into whether this explosion was a terrorist attack.

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The explosion happened at 8:40 a.m. local time, just hours after another attack in New Orleans, where a truck drove into a crowd, killing 15 people. The Cybertruck, which was rented in Colorado through Turo, caught fire outside the Trump hotel, which is owned by the Trump Organization.

Videos taken by people nearby showed flames coming from the truck as people quickly moved away. Guests at the hotel were moved to other nearby hotels for safety, and the Trump hotel was cleared out.

Sheriff Kevin McMahill from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police talked to the media and said, "A Cybertruck, the Trump hotel – we have a lot of questions to answer."
FBI Special Agent Jeremy Schwartz said it was too soon to know if the explosion was a terrorist attack. “We are trying to find out,” Schwartz said.

Authorities later said that large fireworks or possibly a bomb in the truck bed caused the explosion. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, confirmed this on social media, explaining that the explosion was not caused by the Cybertruck itself. “The explosion was caused by large fireworks or a bomb in the truck bed, not by the vehicle,” Musk wrote. He also said that the vehicle had no problems before the explosion.

The driver of the Cybertruck, who has not been named, was killed in the explosion. Seven others were injured, with two taken to the hospital.
A Turo spokesperson said that the person who rented the Cybertruck did not have a criminal record. “We are working with law enforcement as they investigate both events,” the spokesperson said.

Elon Musk tweeted about the attack, saying, "The people behind this picked the wrong vehicle. The Cybertruck helped contain the explosion and kept it from causing more damage. Even the glass doors of the hotel were not broken."

The timing of the explosion was concerning because it happened so soon after the New Orleans attack. Police had found a possible bomb in the vehicle used in that attack, which made authorities in Las Vegas more alert.
 
Eric Trump, the son of the U.S. President-elect and the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, also shared his thoughts on Twitter. “Earlier today, there was an electric vehicle fire at the Trump Las Vegas hotel,” he wrote.