Police search for clues to mysterious motor home blast in Nashville
Source: Reuters Published: 2020/12/27 18:18:40
Police and federal agents in Nashville sought clues on Saturday to determine how and why a motor home was blown to pieces in an apparent bombing on Christmas Day that injured three people and damaged dozens of buildings in the heart of America's country music capital.
The means of detonation and whether anyone was inside the RV when it blew up were not immediately known, but investigators were examining what they believed might be human remains found in the vicinity of the blast, police said.
Police offered no possible motive, and there was no claim of responsibility, though Nashville Metropolitan Police Department officials called the blast an "intentional act" and vowed to determine its origin.
Agents of the FBI and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting in the probe.
Adding to the cryptic nature of the incident was the eerie preamble described by witnesses - a crackle of gunfire followed an apparently computer-generated female voice from the RV reciting a minute-by-minute countdown to an impending bombing. Police scrambled to evacuate nearby homes and buildings and called for a bomb squad, which was still en route to the scene when the RV blew up just outside an AT&T building where it had been parked.
Police later posted a photo of the motor home, which they said had arrived in the area about four hours prior to the explosion. The fiery blast, heard from miles away, destroyed a number of other vehicles parked nearby, shattered windows and heavily damaged several adjacent buildings. Mayor John Cooper said a total of 41 businesses were damaged.
Fire officials said three people were taken to hospitals with relatively minor injuries and were listed in stable condition.
Newspaper headline: Police search for clues to mysterious motor home blast
Police and federal agents in Nashville sought clues on Saturday to determine how and why a motor home was blown to pieces in an apparent bombing on Christmas Day. Photo: VCG
The motor home, parked on a downtown street of Tennessee's largest city, exploded at dawn on Friday moments after police responding to reports of gunfire in the area noticed the recreational vehicle and heard an automated message emanating from it warning of a bomb.The means of detonation and whether anyone was inside the RV when it blew up were not immediately known, but investigators were examining what they believed might be human remains found in the vicinity of the blast, police said.
Police offered no possible motive, and there was no claim of responsibility, though Nashville Metropolitan Police Department officials called the blast an "intentional act" and vowed to determine its origin.
Agents of the FBI and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting in the probe.
Adding to the cryptic nature of the incident was the eerie preamble described by witnesses - a crackle of gunfire followed an apparently computer-generated female voice from the RV reciting a minute-by-minute countdown to an impending bombing. Police scrambled to evacuate nearby homes and buildings and called for a bomb squad, which was still en route to the scene when the RV blew up just outside an AT&T building where it had been parked.
Police later posted a photo of the motor home, which they said had arrived in the area about four hours prior to the explosion. The fiery blast, heard from miles away, destroyed a number of other vehicles parked nearby, shattered windows and heavily damaged several adjacent buildings. Mayor John Cooper said a total of 41 businesses were damaged.
Fire officials said three people were taken to hospitals with relatively minor injuries and were listed in stable condition.
Newspaper headline: Police search for clues to mysterious motor home blast
Posted in: AMERICAS