WASHINGTON, Dec 27, 2020 – Authorities searched a house in the
Nashville area on Saturday as they probed the large blast that ripped through
the downtown of the southern US city on Christmas morning, injuring several
people and damaging dozens of buildings.
The operation in Antioch came as US media reports said a 63-year-old
“person of interest” had been identified in connection with the explosion,
which came from a parked motorhome that blared a warning minutes before it
blew up.
Friday’s blast in historic downtown Nashville, the United States’ country
music capital, damaged some 40 buildings and injured at least three people,
with the streets largely abandoned at that hour.
No deaths have been confirmed but authorities were examining tissue found
at the blast site that they believe could be human remains.
Police say the blast was an “intentional act” but the motive remained
unclear and FBI behavioral analysts were involved in the investigation.
“The damage is shocking and it is a miracle that no residents were killed,”
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said on Twitter on Saturday.
Media reports said neighbors had previously spotted a motorhome outside the
residence that was being searched Saturday by authorities, and that it
appeared to be similar to the one that exploded in Nashville.
No one has been arrested, but “information developed during the course of
the investigation led us to this address”, an FBI spokesman said in an
interview with the Nashville Tennessean newspaper outside the home being
searched.
At a separate press conference, authorities declined to provide details or
discuss the reports of a person identified.
They said they were sifting through more than 500 leads and tips and that
sweeps of the area found no further explosive devices.
Federal prosecutor Don Cochran said the scene was “like a giant jigsaw
puzzle created by a bomb that throws pieces of evidence across multiple city
blocks.”
The investigation included some 250 FBI agents, analysts and other staff,
said the agency’s Doug Korneski.
“We have over 500 investigative leads and we’re following up on every one
of those,” Korneski told reporters.
“So there are a number of individuals that we’re looking at. So at this
point, we’re not prepared to identify any single individual.”
He added however that “at this point we don’t have any indication that we
are looking for another subject.”
– Emergency request –
The governor toured the site on Saturday and said he had asked President
Donald Trump to declare a state of emergency, a technical move that triggers
federal assistance in repairing damage.
“These buildings, many of which are historic, and others will need to be
assessed by an engineer for structural integrity and safety,” Lee said in his
request.
According to a timeline provided by the authorities, police were called to
the area to respond to gunfire at 5:30 am, and officers spotted the motorhome
at 6:00 am.
Fifteen minutes later, they heard an audio countdown coming from the
vehicle warning of a bomb — interspersed with music — and the need to
evacuate.
Police have not said if anyone was inside the motorhome at the time, but
lauded the officers who arrived at the scene and took quick action.
“Instead of taking it as just maybe a threat and calling in and getting
resources, they immediately began knocking on doors, they coordinated the
resources to get everyone evacuated and out,” Nashville Police Chief John
Drake said.
The motorhome was parked in front of a building for phone company AT&T,
causing damage that disrupted telecommunications service in Tennessee as well
as parts of Alabama and Kentucky.
AT&T said Saturday that two portable cell sites were operating in downtown
Nashville and additional portable sites were being deployed in the region to
restore service.