(Reuters) -A Tesla Cybertruck caught fire outside of the Trump Hotel Las Vegas on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring several others, and news reports said it was being investigated as a possible terrorist act.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference that a person was found dead inside the 2024 model-year Cybertruck and seven people sustained minor injuries from the explosion.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla , said the electric car maker was investigating the fire.
“The whole Tesla senior team is investigating this matter right now,” he said in a post on X, adding, “We’ve never seen anything like this.”
McMahill said the Cybertruck pulled up to the Trump building at 8:40 a.m. local time. He said police were mindful of the New Orleans attack that had occurred in the early hours of Wednesday. The FBI said a potential explosive device was found in the vehicle used in that attack.
“As you can imagine with an explosion here on iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking all the precautions that we need to take to keep our community safe. We’re looking for secondary devices,” McMahill said, adding that there did not appear to be any further threat to the community.
Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and a son of president-elect Donald Trump, posted about the incident on X. “Earlier today, a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochère of Trump Las Vegas,” he wrote.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board in 2024 opened an investigation into a crash and fire involving a Tesla electric semi-truck on a California highway.
Auto experts say electric vehicle fires burn differently than those in cars with internal combustion engines, often lasting longer and being harder to extinguish.
(Reporting by Harshita Meenaktshi, Karen Brettell and David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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