Tesla founder Elon Musk has blamed terrorism for an explosion inside a Tesla vehicle at a hotel owned by United States President-elect Donald Trump’s company that killed one person and injured seven others.
Musk said the Tesla Cybertruck that blew up outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on Wednesday and the truck that killed at least 15 people when it drove into crowds in New Orleans the same day were rented from the same company, Turo.
“Appears likely to be an act of terrorism. Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way,” he Musk wrote in a post on X, the social media network he owns.
Musk also confirmed the explosion was caused by “very large fireworks and/or a bomb” carried in the bed of the electric pick-up truck and was unrelated to the truck itself, with all vehicle telemetry positive at the time of the explosion.
Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of more than US$460 billion, has developed a closer relationship with Trump over the last year and joined his Cabinet as Co-Chair of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency Commission.
The man who rented the Cybertruck has since been identified an active-duty US special forces soldier who shot himself dead before the explosion.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told press on Thursday the identity of the driver was Matthew Alan Livelsberger, 37, but were waiting for DNA evidence for full confirmation.
Investigators recovered a military ID, a passport, two semi-automatic pistols, fireworks, an iPhone, a smart watch and several credit cards in Livelsberger's name from the vehicle.
"I'm comfortable calling it a suicide with a bombing that occurred immediately after," Sheriff McMahill said during the press conference.
The Cybertruck arrived in Las Vegas at about 7:30 am after Livelsberger drove it from Colorado (local time), went through the Las Vegas Strip, reaching the hotel at 8:38 am before exploding and catching fire soon after.
“Detectives found gasoline canisters and large firework mortars in the bed of the truck,” the LVMPD said in a media release.
Fire officers extinguished the fire and found the sole occupant of the vehicle dead inside while seven people suffered minor injuries.
Officers evacuated the Trump International Hotel, which is part of the President-elect’s company Trump Organisation.
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