RV broadcast warning of explosion
Hours after a recreational vehicle exploded in downtown Nashville, Tennessee on Christmas morning, law enforcement officials – still without a suspect or motive for the blast – were surveying a devastated landscape, including more than 40 damaged businesses, three people hospitalised with injuries, and disruptions to internet and cellphone service.
Authorities grounded planes, and the mayor imposed a nighttime curfew on the busy historical district near the blast site.
On a holiday many had hoped would bring a sense of calm in a chaotic year, the early-morning explosion dealt a terrifying blow.
‘‘This is not how anybody wanted to spend Christmas morning,’’ Mayor John Cooper said. ‘‘We are very lucky that there were not more injuries.’’
Police and city officials called the incident an ‘‘ intentional act’’. Cooper called it a ‘‘ deliberate bomb’’, and vowed to bring local, state and federal law enforcement resources to bear to find the suspect.
While there were no confirmed fatalities, Nashville’s police chief said investigators had found tissue that could be human remains near the scene of the explosion, and were preparing to examine it.
The chain of events began around 5.30am local time, when residents on Second Avenue, home to a row of restaurants and honky-tonk nightclubs, heard what they thought were rapidfire gunshots. Some later speculated that the sound was an amplified
recording designed to awaken them.
Then came a bizarre recorded warning from a loudspeaker on the RV, police and residents said. ‘‘It was a computerised message of ‘Evacuate now ... This vehicle has a bomb and will explode’,’’ said Betsy Williams, who lives in a building adjacent to the blast site.
Soon afterwards, the message changed to a 15-minute countdown to detonation.
Police responded about 6am and found a ‘‘suspicious’’ RV parked near
an AT&T transmission building. They heard the broadcast message coming from the vehicle, and called in the police bomb squad.
Officers went door to door, telling residents to evacuate. About 6.30am, the RV exploded, destroying storefronts and scattering ash and debris through the streets.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake said police had not identified a suspect or a motive. He said it was not clear whether anyone was inside the vehicle when it exploded.