As we reported earlier, someone blew up an RV with explosive in it in front of an AT&T building in downtown Nashville this morning, Christmas Day.
The massive explosion caused a lot of destruction over multiple city blocks blowing out windows and damaging buildings.
Part of the reason was because the police had evacuated many of the people who were there before the bomb went off. They were already in the area because of reports of shots being fired and a suspicious RV that had a recording announcing that people should evacuate the area, that a bomb would be going off.
The bomb went off in front of an AT&T data center, knocking out phone service to Nashville and the surrounding area, as well as 911 service in several cities, up to 180 miles away.
“Service for some customers in Nashville and the surrounding areas may be affected by damage to our facilities from the explosion this morning. We are in contact with law enforcement and working as quickly and safely as possible to restore service,” AT&T spokesman Jim Greer said in an emailed statement.
The AT&T outages site showed service issues in middle Tennessee and Kentucky, including Bowling Green about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of Nashville. Several police agencies reported that their 911 systems were down because of the outage, including Murfreesboro and Knox County, home to Knoxville about 180 miles (290 kilometers) east of Nashville.
Now police are publishing a picture of the RV that was used and blew up in the bombing. According to the police, it arrived in the area around 1:30 a.m. the night before.
There are also reports breaking now that “human remains” were found near the explosion.
It’s not clear if it’s a victim or possibly the bomber.
Here’s video of the warnings but also including the actual moment of explosion.