A parked motor home exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning in what police described as an “intentional act,” and fire officials reported taking three people to hospital but none were critically injured.
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“The explosion was significant, as you can see … the police department, its federal partners – the FBI and ATF – are conducting a large-scale investigation to this point,” said Don Aaron, Nashville police spokesman. “We do believe that the explosion was an intentional act.”
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A motive for the explosion was not disclosed by police.
The explosion was felt nine blocks away and destroyed several other vehicles and damaged several buildings, launching black smoke in the sky that could be seen for miles. Flights out of Nashville airport were halted because of telecommunications issues associated with the explosion downtown.
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Andrew McCabe, a former deputy FBI director, told CNN that an explosion of this size would be investigated as a possible act of terrorism. He said it was possible police were the target of the explosions given they were answering a report of a suspicious vehicle when it blew up.
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Authorities were on their way to the scene after 6 a.m. before the explosion occurred in a recreational vehicle parked near a bank building in the heart of Nashville, the capital of both the U.S. state of Tennessee and U.S. country music.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper urged people to stay away from the downtown area, as police and federal authorities launched their investigation.
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“There was trees lying everywhere, glass laying everywhere,” Nashville resident Buck McCoy told CNN.
Interviewed by CNN, McCabe said it was unclear whether the timing on Christmas Day factored in the blast. He said investigators would be looking into whether any buildings in the area were a target.
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Three package bombs left on doorsteps in suburban neighborhoods have exploded in less than two weeks in Texas’ capital city, killing two, wounding two others and leaving investigators vowing to look at any possible explanation for a motive.
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Police said the bombings in eastern Austin two Monday and one on March 2 are likely linked. All the victims were minorities, and investigators are looking into whether race was a factor. However, they backed off initial suggestions that hate crimes could be a core cause.
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The attacks unfolded as tens of thousands of visitors arrived for the busiest days of the South By Southwest music festival. The gathering didn’t appear related, but police urged tourists to be vigilant while warning residents to call authorities immediately if they receive unexpected parcel deliveries.
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The first of Monday’s blasts occurred early in the morning when a package was carried into the kitchen and exploded upon being opened, killing a 17-year-old boy and wounding a 40-year-old woman, both of them black.
Hours later, authorities were called to the scene of another explosion also triggered by the opening of a package. That blast wounded a 75-year-old Hispanic woman, who was taken to a hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries.
Both of those explosions are thought to be linked to another early morning blast, this one on March 2, which killed a black man. Monday’s victims were not immediately identified but police said previously that the March 2 victim was 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House.
“This is the third in what we believe to be related incidents over the past 10 days,” Austin police Chief Brian Manley said during the second of two news conferences he held near each of Monday’s explosion sites.
At first Manley suggested that the blasts could constitute a hate crime, but later amended that to say authorities had not settled on a motive since the intended targets weren’t clear because multiple people live in the homes where explosives were placed. He also said they may possibly have been left at the wrong addresses.
“We are not ruling anything out at this point,” Manley said.
Investigators refused to provide many details about how the explosives were packaged, citing the ongoing investigation. But Manley described them as “not particularly large.” In all three cases, he said, the packages did not appear to have gone through the U.S. Postal Service or private carriers, but were left on doorsteps without knocking or ringing doorbells.
