A Cybertruck explosion outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas was caused by firework mortars and camp fuel canisters, according to investigators.
The explosion killed one person inside the vehicle and injured at least seven others nearby.
“Once the fire went out through the suppression efforts of the fire department, you’ll see some of the evidence in the back of the vehicle,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters during a Wednesday news conference.
“So those are gasoline canisters. They are camp fuel canisters and large firework mortars. But I also would like you to pay attention to on that video,” he said, describing the objects shown in the footage.
“As you see that it looks like the exterior of that truck is completely intact as it sits there,” McMahill continued. “The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet because it had most of the blasts go up through the truck and out.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also confirmed those reports later in the day.
“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 wrote later Wednesday in a post on social platform X.
“All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” he added.
Authorities responded quickly to the emergency outside of the Hotel, where they found a dead body inside of the truck — which was reportedly rented through the app Turo.
McMahill started investigating the explosion as a terrorist attack using data provided by Musk.
“I have to thank Elon Musk specifically,” McMahill told reporters.
“He gave us quite a bit of additional information in regards to how the vehicle was locked after it exploded,” he added.
Musk, who’s preparing to work closely with President-elect Trump throughout his incoming administration as the co-leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), used Tesla charging stations to track the driver’s movement in the moments leading up to the detonation. He said the high-tech vehicle isolated the explosion, limiting the damage caused to the areas surrounding.
“Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken,” Musk wrote on X Wednesday evening.
Investigators have not currently named a suspect in part due to uncertainty about the culprit’s identity which may have been the same person who died.
“What I will update, I’m very well aware that there’s a name already been reported out into the media. I am not going to confirm any names to you as I sit here today because I cannot do that with 100 percent certainty of who the individual is,” McMahill said during the news conference.
He added that the truck had likely been rented in Colorado and traveled “up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before immediately pulling into the Trump Towers.”
