Nashville Bomb Blast Kills 1, Injures 3; President Briefed
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – An apparent act of terrorism shook the United States on Christmas Day as a car bomb rocked downtown Nashville killing at least one person and injuring three others.
Authorities said they found human remains in the vicinity of the explosion, but more details were still being investigated.
It caused widespread communications outages, took down police emergency systems and grounded flights at the city’s airport. Authorities said they believe the blast was intentional.
Police responded to a report of shots fired Friday when they encountered the recreational vehicle blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake explained.
Police evacuated nearby buildings and called in the bomb squad. “Shortly after that, the RV exploded,” Drake added at a midday news conference.
Surveillance video published on a Twitter account Friday that appeared to be across the street from the blast captured the warning issuing from the RV, “… if you can hear this message, evacuate now,” seconds before the explosion.
The large blast was reported at 6.30 am local time in a commercial district, which had been packed with Christmas shoppers the day before.
BLACK SMOKE
Black smoke and flames could be seen billowing from the heart of downtown Nashville’s tourist scene, an area packed with honky-tonks, restaurants, and shops.
Most of the buildings were closed given the hour and Christmas holiday in the heart of the city, the capital of both the state of Tennessee and US country music.
Three people were transported to hospitals from the scene, but none are in critical condition, according to Joseph Pleasant, Nashville Fire spokesman.
Eyewitness Buck McCoy said the explosion took place right in front of his home, causing his windows to be blown in. “Everything on the street was fire,” he said. “There were three cars that were fully engulfed.”
A video he filmed immediately after the bombing showed the ceiling of nearby flats caved in as water poured in. Residents could be heard screaming as they assessed the smoldering wreckage. “All my windows, every single one of them got blown into the next room. If I had been standing there, it would have been horrible,” McCoy told the CNN network.
QUESTIONS REMAIN
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the apparent terror attack.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper urged people to stay away from the downtown area as police and federal authorities investigated. Bomb dogs and surveillance camera footage aided security forces. U.S. President Donald J. Trump was briefed on the explosion, a White House spokesman said.
Car bombings in the United States are rare. A 1995 truck bombing in Oklahoma City killed 168 people, including 19 children, and wounded hundreds. Timothy McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in June 2001 for the attack. In April 2010, a food vendor foiled an attempt to set off a car bomb in New York’s Time Square.
However, it comes when the nation is still on edge following sometimes deadly riots and shootings and previous acts of terrorism.
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