A Tesla Cybertruck burst into flames outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday, killing the driver and injuring seven others, and the FBI is investigating whether the blast was an act of terrorism, officials said. told

Videos taken by witnesses inside and outside the hotel show the vehicle exploding as it sits outside the hotel, flames shooting out of it.

The incident came hours after a truck plowed into a crowd of revelers on New Year’s Day in New Orleans, killing 15 people.

The Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is part of the Trump Organization, the company of President-elect Donald Trump, who will return to the White House on January 20. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was a key supporter of Trump in the 2024 presidential campaign and is also an adviser to the incoming president.

“Obviously the cyber truck, the Trump hotel — there are a lot of questions that we have to answer,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahal said at an afternoon press conference.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeremy Schwartz later told reporters that it was still unclear whether the blast was an act of terrorism.

“I know everybody is interested in the word, and trying to see if we can say, ‘Hey, this is a terrorist attack.’ That’s our goal, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Schwartz said.

He added that the FBI had identified the person driving the vehicle, which was rented in Colorado, but was not yet ready to publicly identify the driver.

Musk said the explosion had nothing to do with the cyber truck.

“We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by a massive firework and/or bomb planted in the bed of the rented cyber truck and was unrelated to the vehicle itself,” Musk said in a post on X. ” All vehicle telemetry was positive. At the time of the explosion.”

Telemetry involves the automatic collection of data from remote sources, transmitting it back to a central source for later analysis.

One person was found dead inside the 2024 model year Cybertruck and seven people suffered minor injuries in the explosion, McMahal said. He added that both the cybertruck and the vehicle used in the New Orleans attack were rented by the car-sharing service Toro.

A Toro spokeswoman said the company did not believe any of the car rental companies involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security risk.

“We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents,” the spokesperson added.

McMahal said the cyber truck arrived at the Trump building at 8:40 a.m. local time (1640 GMT). He said police were paying attention to the New Orleans attack that happened earlier Wednesday. The FBI said a possible explosive device was recovered from the vehicle used in the New Orleans attack.

Las Vegas firefighters responded and extinguished the vehicle fire four minutes after receiving the report. Two of the injured were taken to hospital with minor injuries. After the incident, the Trump Hotel was evacuated and most of the visitors were transferred to other hotels.

Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and son of President-elect Trump, posted about the incident on X. “Earlier today, Trump was reported to have caught fire in an electric vehicle at Port Cochere in Las Vegas,” he wrote. to the covered entrance of the building.

© Thomson Reuters 2025

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