FBI looks for any link between Tesla explosion and New Orleans attack

By Ronda Churchill, David Shepardson and Karen Brettell

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - The FBI is investigating whether there is any connection between the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas and a New Orleans truck attack that killed 15 people on New Year's Day, officials said.

Gasoline canisters and large firework mortars were packed into the Cybertruck that burst into flames shortly after a driver intentionally drove a pickup truck into crowds celebrating the new year in the French Quarter of New Orleans, according to officials.

The sole occupant of the truck was found dead inside and seven people sustained minor injuries, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement.

 The FBI has identified the person driving the vehicle but was not ready to release that information, FBI special agent in charge Jeremy Schwartz told reporters on Wednesday.

The FBI did not return a request for more information on Thursday.

The incident occurred just hours after a man drove a truck into crowds of New Year's Day revelers in New Orleans, killing 15. 

Officials have not established a link between the events.

Videos taken by witnesses inside and outside the Las Vegas hotel showed the vehicle exploding and flames pouring out of it, as it sat outside the hotel at around 8:40 a.m. local time (1640 GMT) Wednesday.

A Trump spokesman did not return a request for comment Thursday on the Cybertruck incident. Eric Trump praised Las Vegas fire and law enforcement officials on Wednesday for their quick action on the explosion.

'LOTS OF QUESTIONS'

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 Jan. 20. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was a key backer of Trump in his 2024 presidential campaign and is also an adviser to the incoming president.

"Obviously a Cybertruck, the Trump hotel - there's lots of questions that we have to answer," Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference.

Police said the truck was rented in Colorado, arrived in Las Vegas at around 7:30 a.m. and drove through the city's famed Strip, lined with hotels, casinos and entertainment venues, until it reached the hotel, where it stopped in the valet area.

"Detectives found gasoline canisters and large firework mortars in the bed of the truck," a police statement said.

Schwartz, the FBI special agent in charge, said it was not yet clear whether the blast was an act of terrorism.

Musk said the blast was unrelated to the 2024 model-year Cybertruck itself.

"We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is 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 so it can later be analyzed.

Both the Cybertruck and the vehicle used in the New Orleans attack had been rented through car-sharing service Turo, McMahill said.

A Turo spokesperson said the company did not believe either of the renters of the vehicles involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.

The Trump Hotel was evacuated after the incident and most of the visitors were moved to another hotel.

(Reporting by Ronda Churchill in Las Vegas, Harshita Meenaktshi in Bengaluru, Karen Brettell in New York and David Shepardson, Jasper Ward and Ismail Shakil in Washington; Additional reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Scott Malone and Nick Zieminski)