A parked RV exploded in Nashville, Tennessee, early on Christmas morning, injuring three people and knocking out communications systems across the state.
Police believe the blast outside a telecoms building was caused deliberately.
Officers responding to reports of gunshots just before 06:00 found a RV broadcasting a warning message to leave the area.
The van exploded a few minutes later.
According to officials, a police officer was knocked off the feet by the force of the blast.
Police have now released this image of the van – described by Nashville police as a recreational vehicle – arriving at the scene on Christmas morning.
Nashville PD tweeted: “BREAKING: This is the RV that exploded on 2nd Ave N this morning. It arrived on 2nd Ave at 1:22 a.m. Have you seen this vehicle in our area or do you have information about it? Please contact us via Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463 or online via http://fbi.gov/nashville. @ATFHQ”
The RV blew up outside a building belonging to the telecoms giant AT&T, which also occupies an office tower nearby.
Buildings suffered structural damage, windows were blown out, and trees felled. Videos posted on social media showed water from damaged pipes running down walls as alarms howled in the background.
Police emergency systems were knocked out across much of Tennessee. Flights out of Nashville International Airport were briefly halted as a result of damage done by the blast but have now resumed.
No motive has yet been established, nor do police know who was behind the incident.
A number of people have been taken to the central police precinct for questioning, a spokesman told the Associated Press.
It was not clear whether anyone was inside the vehicle at the time of the explosion, police said.
The FBI is leading the investigation. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are also involved.
The explosion hit an area of Nashville known for its restaurants and nightlife.
Police spokesman Don Aaron told reporters: “To this point, we do believe that the explosion was an intentional act.”
Surveillance video posted on YouTube appeared to show the moments before the explosion, when a warning was broadcast, saying: “If you can hear this message, evacuate now.”
A loud bang follows and flames and smoke fill the screen.
In a tweet Tennessee Governor Bill Lee pledged to supply “all of the resources needed” to investigate what happened and who was behind it.
President Donald Trump has been briefed on the matter.
Nelly has been arrested on felony drug charges after police stopped the bus in which he was travelling in Tennessee.
The 40-year-old Grammy Award-winning rapper, real name Cornell Haynes, was pulled over on April 11 because the bus was allegedly not displaying legally-required stickers.
The bus was then searched after a state trooper smelled marijuana, authorities in Tennessee said.
Officers are alleged to have found drugs and handguns on board.
The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security said Nelly was taken to Putnam County Jail after the bus, which had six people on board, was stopped on Interstate 40.
Nelly was charged with felony possession of drugs, simple possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia and was later released on bail.
One other man travelling on the coach was arrested and charged, authorities said.
A statement said two state troopers searched the bus and found “five colored crystal-type rocks that tested positive for methamphetamine, as well as a small amount of marijuana and other drug paraphernalia” as well as the guns.
According to CNN, Nelly’s lawyer Scott Rosenblum said “there had been 15-20 people that had access to the bus prior to the stop”.
Scott Rosenblum said he was “extremely confident that when the facts come out, Nelly will not be associated with the contraband that was allegedly discovered”.
Nelly, whose hits include Hot in Herre, Dilemma and Ride Wit Me, is currently starring in his own reality TV show, Nellyville.
The reality show centers around Nelly’s home and family life with his two children and his sister’s two children, who he adopted after his sibling died from leukaemia.
The partial remains of Holly Bobo have been found in Tennessee more than three years after she disappeared, investigators said.
Holly Bobo was a Tennessee nursing student and cousin of country music singer Whitney Duncan and was 20 years old at the moment of her disappearance.
She was last seen alive in 2011. Hundreds of volunteers turned out to search for Holly Bobo, and her case yielded more than $450,000 in reward money offered.
Holly Bobo’s remains were found on September 7 in Decatur County, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Monday night.
Hunters had found a human skull, CNN reported.
The partial remains of Holly Bobo have been found in Tennessee more than three years after she disappeared
District Attorney Matt Stowe said he is “ready, willing and able to seek the death penalty in this case.”
“We are going to make sure that everyone who played a part in the heinous crime that has attacked the peace and dignity of the great state of Tennessee faces a consequence for that,” Matt Stowe said Monday night.
Two men have been charged in connection with Holly Bobo’s death: Jason Wayne Autry and Zachary Adams.
Jason Wayne Autry and Zachary Rye Adams have been charged with murder and aggravated kidnapping in the case. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Tennessee brothers Mark and Jeffrey Pearcy were charged with evidence tampering and as accessories after the fact.
Holly Bobo’s brother has told authorities he saw a man in camouflage leading Bobo away from their home in the town of Darden in April 2011. Volunteers from at least five counties searched for the student, but to no avail.
Just days after 12-year-old Taylor Smith died, her parents found a sealed envelope containing a letter she had written to her 22-year-old self.
Taylor Smith died of pneumonia on January 5.
“To be opened by Taylor Smith on April 13, 2023 only unless said otherwise,” Taylor Smith had written on the envelope of the letter in April 2013.
“Sorry, baby, we opened it,” her father, Tim Smith, told WJHL TV station, before reading it aloud with a sometimes-quavering voice.
“Dear Taylor, how’s life? Life is pretty simple 10 years in your past. I know I’m late for you, but as I’m writing this early, so: congratulations on graduating high school! If you didn’t, go back and keep trying. Get that degree! … Do you have your own place yet? If we’re in college, what are we majoring in? Right now I wanna be a lawyer.”
The letter also addresses the importance of prayer and religious missions (Taylor Smith was, like her family, a devout Christian), Dollywood, her iPad (with a drawing of it attached) and the show Dr. Who.
Taylor Smith died of pneumonia on January 5
The last, heartbreaking line reads: “Well, I think that’s all, but remember it’s been 10 years since I wrote this. Stuff has happened, good and bad. That’s just how life works, and you have to go with it.”
Tim Smith talked with WJHL about his feelings of grief.
“Initially it’s shock and waves of depression, and hoping that it’s not real, and hoping that every time you take a nap or go to sleep you find out it wasn’t real,” he says.
But, he added: “If it’s God’s time, it’s God’s time, and he loved her more than we could ever love her. So much so that he said <<Come on>>. A lot of people are probably wondering why it’s so easy for a father who just lost his daughter to say something like that, to not curse God, to not hate God. The only thing I can say is that right now it’s easy for me to trust God because my baby girl trusted him.”
Tim Smith told Buzz Feed: “She liked doing quirky things and she liked doing meaningful things, she always created stuff. The fact that she wrote this letter wasn’t a surprise, but what she wrote was.”
A huge turnout of friends and surviving family members, which include older brother, Judah, celebrated Taylor Smith’s life at a church memorial service Wednesday.
Shortly beforehand, Tim Smith posted a message on his daughter’s Facebook page.
“I just wanted to write this so that ALL of her friends, not just the ones who know her parents, would know that Taylor loved you all immensely! If you knew her at all you know that she was never fake. So if you made it into her list of friends here on Facebook, then believe me, you were a friend,” the post reads.
“Thanks for loving our daughter/sister.”
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