An explosion involving a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas is currently being treated as a crime and potential terror attack, and footage shared on social media shows the mysterious and horrifying incident.
On the morning of January 1, 2025, a Tesla Cybertruck rented out of state in Colorado drove up and parked outside the Trump Tower luxury hotel in Las Vegas, and shortly began smoking before exploding in horrifying fashion.
While bizarre incidents involving Cybertrucks have been well documented on social media, all signs point towards this particular incident having nothing to do with the car's internals and instead local law enforcement have indicated that this could be a deliberate attack.
The driver of the Cybertruck has been confirmed as the only death as a result of the explosion, but seven others in the surrounding area had to be taken to hospital after suffering minor injuries.
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CCTV footage shared on X (formerly Twitter) shows the large-scale explosion that sourced directly from the vehicle's rear bed, and it has been revealed that the car was filled with fuel canisters and firework mortars, which can be seen shortly after the initial explosion.
The explosion, which occurred at 08:40 PT, happened just hours following the New Orleans terror attack, and both law enforcement and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have questioned whether the two incidents are linked.
"Appears likely to be an act of terrorism," Musk claimed on X, "Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way."
President Joe Biden also revealed in a statement: "Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there's any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans."
Elon Musk also verified that the cause of the explosion wasn't linked to any vehicle faults, revealing that "we have now confirmed that the explosion was cause by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself." He continued on to uphold that "all vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion."
While users on social media have stressed that it was "lucky that no one was near when this happened," it appears that the construction and build of the Cybertruck might actually have minimized any risk of danger surrounding the vehicle.
Law enforcement detailed that the sides of the truck remained in-tact, and the explosion was mostly routed upwards and away from the sidewalk and road.
This resulted in minimal surrounding damage to buildings or nearby cars, and the glass doors of Trump Tower which remained only a couple of meters away remained completely untouched.