Newsman: Authorities have found what they believe to be human remains near the site of the recreational vehicle explosion in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, police Chief John Drake told reporters.
Drake said tissue that was found will be examined to see whether it is human remains. He could not say how close the tissue was to the site where a motor home exploded.
Mayor John Cooper said the blast was caused by a “deliberate bomb.”
More people could have been hurt, authorities said, but six police officers evacuated nearby residents when they heard a recording coming from the vehicle that said a bomb was about to explode.
Three civilians who were injured are in stable condition. At least 41 businesses were damaged, the mayor said.
Acting US Attorney General Jeff Rosen was briefed on the incident, according to his spokesman, “and directed that all DOJ resources be made available to assist in the investigation.”
The White House said that President Donald Trump has been briefed and would receive “regular updates.” President-elect Joe Biden has also been briefed.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement on Twitter that the state would “supply all the resources needed” to determine the cause of the explosion.
Metro Nashville Police Department officers were responding to a call of shots fired around 5:30 a.m. CT Friday when they found a motor home parked in front of an AT&T transmission building at 166 2nd Avenue North.
Nashville Vice Mayor Jim Shulman told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that a female voice was speaking in the warning message played from the RV before the explosion.
“There were a number of people who did evacuate and then we know of some people, it didn’t go off when the message said it would and so people started coming back in, and then it went off,” he explained.
Officers saw no immediate evidence of shots fired but they requested the department’s hazardous devices unit and started to evacuate neighborhood residents, police said.
The RV exploded at 6:30 a.m. CT as the bomb squad was responding, police spokesman Don Aaron said.
“We do believe this to have been an intentional act,” he said.
The force of the explosion knocked down one officer, Aaron said, and caused hearing loss in another — hopefully temporarily, he said. But no officers were significantly injured.
Officials have no information about whether anyone was inside the RV when it exploded.
There were no known credible threats in the Nashville area that would have signaled an impending attack on or before Christmas, a federal law enforcement source told CNN.
A second law enforcement source said federal authorities are not aware of any increased chatter nationally by known extremist groups that would indicate any credible plans for conducting attacks around the holidays.
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