An explosion rocked downtown Nashville early Christmas morning injuring three people. Axios reports:
Police say a spooky audio recording boomed from an RV parked in downtown Nashville early Christmas morning, just before the vehicle blew up and turned a historic stretch of the bar-lined tourist district into a glass-strewn shambles. Officers, responding to a 5:30 a.m. CT call for shots fired, encountered the RV as the recording played, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at a televised briefing. The officers began evacuating nearby buildings. “Shortly after that, the RV exploded,” Drake said.
Footage from the scene on 2nd Ave North as multiple agencies continue to work and investigate an explosion from earlier this morning. pic.twitter.com/5g40RhwNNl
— Nashville Fire Dept (@NashvilleFD) December 25, 2020
Late Friday, Nashville police released a security camera picture of the RV shortly before the explosion.
BREAKING: This is the RV that exploded on 2nd Ave N this morning. It arrived on 2nd Ave at 1:22 a.m. Have you seen this vehicle in our area or do you have information about it? Please contact us via Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463 or online via https://t.co/dVGS7o0m4v. @ATFHQ pic.twitter.com/JNx9sDinAH
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) December 25, 2020
The Washington Post reports several buildings in the downtown area suffered damage.
Police do not know whether anyone was in the RV when it exploded, “so I can’t tell you at this point whether there is a fatality in this scenario,” Aaron said. Supervisory Special Agent Joel E. Siskovic said the FBI is leading the investigation, working with state and local authorities. He declined to say whether there were any suspects.
The explosion happened near the AT&T building. The Tennessean reports:
AT&T service in Nashville and Middle Tennessee was affected for many customers Friday, said company spokesperson Jim Greer, citing damage to facilities from the explosion. The outage affected 911 access in several jurisdictions across the region throughout the day.