Man in Tesla truck blast was US elite soldier

A US special forces soldier shot himself before causing a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump Hotel.

LAS VEGAS:

A decorated US special forces soldier shot himself in the head before triggering a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, injuring seven people, the US authorities said on Thursday.

Matthew Livelsberger, 37, took his own life in the rented vehicle filled with fuel containers and fireworks, which then exploded into flames, the officials said. His motive was still "unknown", they added.

The Las Vegas police said that Livelsberger had been identified as the "driver" of the vehicle, and that the coroner had ruled he had died by suicide. They added that authorities had "a lot of confidence" that he was the sole occupant of the Cybertruck.

Livelsberger, a member of the elite Green Berets, was identified through his military ID, passport and credit cards. "He was found with a gun at his feet," Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill told a press conference.

"The motivation at this point is unknown," said FBI Special Agent Spencer Evans. He added there was "no information that we're aware of right now that connects this individual to any terrorist organisation around the world."

Kenny Cooper, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said that Livelsberger had legally purchased two semi-automatic handguns on Monday, which were found in the remains of the vehicle.

Video footage outside the Trump Hotel showed a stainless-steel truck parked at the building's glass entrance early on Wednesday, then bursting into flames, followed by smaller explosions that appeared similar to fireworks.

The Trump-branded building, which opened in 2008, is part-owned by the president-elect's family business. Evans said the link to the Trump was "not lost" on the investigators.

"Nor was the fact that Tesla is owned by prominent Trump backer - Elon Musk," he continued. "But we don't have information at this point that definitively tells us," he was driven by any particular ideology, he said.

Livelsberger rented the vehicle in Colorado on December 28, from where authorities tracked him driving it alone through Arizona and New Mexico to Las Vegas, which he reached on January 1, McMahill said.

Livelsberger had been deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and was currently stationed in Germany. An army spokesperson said he was "on approved leave at the time of his death," and that he had been awarded multiple Bronze Star Medals.

Investigators said it was not yet clear how the blast detonated, but the components were mainly consumer products like fireworks and fuel. They said some of the components had not exploded.

The level of sophistication in the blast was not what they would expect from someone with Livelsberger's military background, according to the investigators. "I just don't think it was done as well as he was expecting it to be done," McMahill said.

The blast came just hours after a pick-up truck plowed into a crowd of revellers in the French Quarter of New Orleans, killing 14 people and injuring dozens. Initially investigators were probing potential links between the events, but authorities in New Orleans said on Thursday they believed the attacker there acted alone, while the FBI described the Vegas incident as "isolated."