US intelligence agencies are studying a possible connection between the terrorist attack in New Orleans and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck electric car at the hotel of US President-elect Donald Trump, current US President Joe Biden said on Thursday.
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“We are monitoring the Cybertruck explosion near the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Law enforcement and the intelligence community are also investigating whether there is any possible connection to the attack in New Orleans,” Biden said in an address to the nation.
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At the same time, the president ignored requests from journalists present at his speech to share details about the progress of the investigation into the incident in Las Vegas.
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Las Vegas police said Wednesday they were investigating a car fire near Trump Towers after videos of a Tesla Cybertruck on fire went viral. Trump Towers is partly owned by US President-elect Donald Trump. The Cybertruck is produced by Tesla, which is owned by a billionaire close to Trump and future official of his administration, Elon Musk.
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Another incident occurred in New Orleans: according to officials, at 03:00 on January 1, New Orleans time, a car drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in the historic center of the city, killing 10 people and injuring 35. There was an exchange of gunfire between police and the suspect, during which the suspect was killed and two police officers were injured, police said. Biden said the FBI was investigating the incident as a terrorist attack. The FBI has confirmed that the suspect in the terrorist attack in New Orleans is 42-year-old US citizen from Texas Shamsud Dean Jabbar, in the car in which he carried out the attack, symbols of the terrorist organization ISIS, banned in the US, were found.
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Musk previously said he believed the explosion in Las Vegas could be a terrorist attack, and drew attention to the possible connection of this incident with the collision of a car with a crowd in New Orleans, since both cars were rented through the car sharing service Turo.
