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US investigators have identified a person of interest in connection with the explosion that rocked downtown Nashville on Christmas Day and are searching a home in the city’s suburbs, the FBI said.
Officers raided a home in Antioch after receiving information relevant to the investigation, according to FBI Special Agent Jason Pack.
Another law enforcement official said investigators consider a person associated with the property to be a person of interest in the blast.
Previously, investigators said they were looking at multiple people who could be related to the blast, but they also did not find any additional explosive devices, indicating there is no active threat to the area.
Douglas Korneski, the special agent in charge of the FBI field office in Memphis, said 250 FBI agents, analysts and personnel are moving forward in the search for the person or persons responsible for planting a bomb in a caravan that exploded in a mostly deserted street.
Three people were injured in the explosion.
He said, “It will take us some time,” adding that his team would go through each stone to find out who was responsible and why.
Separately, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency said tissue samples found at the scene were determined to be human remains.
The attack continues to wreak havoc on communications systems across the state.
Police emergency systems in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama, as well as Nashville’s Covid-19 Community Hotline and a handful of hospital systems, remain out of service as an AT&T central office was affected by the blast. .
The building contained a telephone exchange, with network equipment, but the company has declined to say exactly how many people have been affected.
Investigators closed off the heart of downtown Nashville’s tourist scene, an area lined with bars, restaurants and shops, as they walked through broken glass and damaged buildings to learn more about the explosion.
The mayor of the city, John Cooper, imposed a curfew in the center of the city until Sunday through an executive order.
AT&T said the restoration efforts face several challenges, including a fire that “reignited overnight and led to the evacuation of the building.”
This has forced his teams to work with safety and structural engineers and to drill access holes to the building to reconnect power.
The governor of the state of Tennessee, Bill Lee, requested federal aid from the White House due to the “severity and magnitude” of the impact of the explosion.
At least 41 buildings were damaged and communications systems, including mobile and residential phone service and emergency call centers, failed across the state, he said.
Kentucky and northern Alabama were also affected, he said.
Ray Neville, T-Mobile’s president of technology, said on Twitter that the service disruptions affected Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Birmingham and Atlanta.
“We continue to see service disruptions in these areas after yesterday’s explosion. Restoration efforts continue 24 hours a day and we will keep you updated on progress, ”he said in a tweet.
The outages had even briefly suspended flights at Nashville International Airport, but services continue normally as of Saturday.
Since then, the Federal Aviation Association has issued a temporary flight restriction around the airport, requiring pilots to follow strict procedures until December 30.
According to Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake, police officers were responding to a report of gunfire on Friday morning when they encountered the caravan with a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes.
Police evacuated nearby buildings and called the bomb squad. The vehicle exploded shortly after.
Law enforcement officials have said since shortly after the blast occurred around 6.30am that they believe the blast was intentional. They have not spoken publicly about a possible target or motive.
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