Chilling warning blared from RV before Nashville explosion

An explosion shook the largely deserted streets of downtown Nashville early Christmas morning, shattering windows, damaging buildings and wounding three people. Authorities said they believed the blast was intentional.

Police were responding to a report of shots fired when they encountered a recreational vehicle blaring a recording that said a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said. Police evacuated nearby buildings and called in the bomb squad.

“Shortly after that, the RV exploded,” Drake said at a midday news conference.

Surveillance video published on a Twitter account Friday that appeared to be across the street from the blast captured the recorded warning issuing from the RV, “… if you can hear this message, evacuate now,” seconds before the explosion.

The blast sent black smoke and flames billowing from the heart of downtown Nashville’s tourist scene, an area packed with honky-tonks, restaurants and shops. Buildings shook streets over from the explosion near a building owned by AT&T, which is one block away from the company’s office tower.

“We do not know if that was a coincidence, or if that was the intention,” police spokesman Don Aaron said.

AT&T said the affected building is the central office of a telephone exchange, with network equipment in it. Some service was interrupted, but the company has not said how widespread the outages are. Police agencies were reporting that their 911 systems were down because of outage, including Murfreesboro and Knox County, about 180 miles from Nashville.

Three people were taken to area hospitals for treatment, although none were in critical condition, Aaron said. Authorities don’t know whether anyone was in the vehicle when it exploded. Nashville Mayor John Cooper said the city was lucky that the number of injuries was limited.