Police said one person died and seven were injured when a Tesla cybertruck exploded outside the entrance of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
The 64-story hotel is just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and across the street from the Fashion Show Las Vegas shopping mall.
Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the metropolitan police department, said the incident was reported this morning.
“There is one deceased individual inside the cybertruck, and I don’t know whether it is a male or a female at this time,” McMahill said.
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“At this time, we are investigating a number of leads, and I’m not prepared to release any of that information to you just yet.”
“I can tell you that there are seven victims right now that sustained injuries from the explosion,” he added, describing the injuries as “minor”.
The cause of the explosion is not immediately known.
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McMahill said the Cybertruck, a 2024 model, pulled up to the hotel’s glass entrance doors as smoke began emerging from the vehicle before a large explosion occurred.
The sheriff noted that officials are “very well aware” of the deadly New Orleans attack when a man intentionally drove a pickup truck into a crowd, killing at least 10 people.
The attack happened just hours before the Las Vegas incident.
McMahill said because of the timing, officials are taking all precautions to keep the community safe.
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Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, the billionaire tech mogul who has become Trump’s close ally, debuted the groundbreaking Cybertruck with its futuristic steel design in 2023.
“A Cybertruck, the Trump Hotel—there are lots of questions that we have to answer as we move forward with that,” McMahill said.
Musk said the company had never recorded such an incident and added that a senior team of investigators was looking into the case.
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