moving to figure out why this happened. here's what we know at this hour. police discovered an rv early this morning broadcasting a warning, a bomb will explode. a recorded device stated that warning. police then cleared the area and the bomb went off. the damage to nashville's downtown is extensive, but luckily, the bomb only caused minor injuries, no one is dead. police say there is no other active threat at this time. now, last hour, nashville police put out this photo of the rv that they say exploded on second avenue this morning. authorities say the rv arrived a little after 1:00 a.m. this morning and it exploded five hours later. federal law enforcement sources telling cnn there was no flurry of chatter among domestic chatter groups about a christmas attack leading up to this morning. what we don't know is just as significant. police say there is no motive. they also found no body in that rv, hinting that the person or persons responsible may still be at large. cnn's natasha chen is in nashville near the scene of the explosion, and josh campbell is getting it tadetails from law enforcement officials. what's the situation on the ground? >> well, anderson, it is very quiet here. and for anyone who has spent time in the historic downtown area of nashville knows this is a typically a bustling area. a lot has changed with covid-19 protocols, but now with this perimeter behind us, it's absolutely quiet. we're on second avenue where this explosion happened, but several blocks away, you could see the police cars there with their flashing lights and the tape blocking things off. where this happened, far off in the distance, you can see this rusty colored taller building there. that's approximately where the blast happened this morning. as you mentioned, police have put out a picture now of the rv they believe to be at the center of this that had come onto this street overnight. you know, this is really shaking people. we even saw some folks who had come into town for christmas come up to us within the last hour just to share their support for nashville and praying with the city. right now, there is a public cry for help as far as tips are concerned. asking people to call in with whatever they know. the nashville visitor and conventions corporation even contributed $10,000 to a reward fund for information leading to whoever is responsible for this. there is a ground stop at the nashville airport right now. that's all related to this explosion because of the service outage as far as phones go, a lot of wi-fi is down. 911 calls have been affected today. so law enforcement and folks telling people that if they have trouble calling 911 for emergencies to please continue trying to dial. so this is definitely affecting a lot of the service around this downtown region. a lot of the streets are blocked off. the ramps from the freeways coming into downtown also closed. so police are really trying to seal this off. as far as the people who live right next to where the blast happened, cnn has spoken to some of them who have shown the damage inside their homes. and now the american red cross has also set up services for people who are affected, anderson. >> josh campbell, obviously, authorities have not said anything about a motive at this time. or who may be behind this. whether it's individuals or a group. i'm wondering what you're hearing thus far and what do you make of just how this was set up, the fact there was a recording device giving at least a 15-minute warning a bomb would go off from the rv and choosing this location at this time, you know, around 6:23, i think it was or so, on christmas morning. obviously, not a lot of people around in that area. >> yeah, i think my views are summed up by one federal law enforcement source i spoke with who said they're simply baffled. if you look at the way this transpired with you have first that call that went out to 911 of shots fired, as authorities arrive downtown in nashville, they met this rv, and they heard this recording going off saying that a bomb will explode in 15 minutes. now, that's key because if the idea, the goal here was to cause indiscriminate mass loss of life, you wouldn't have a warning and likely a suspect wouldn't detonate a device early in the morning on christmas day in a place you didn't have a lot of people. that's really baffling investigators right now because they don't know what the actual motive was. what they're doing is looking at the circumstances surrounding it. they know this rv appeared to be parked next to this at&t switching center which provides service in and around the area natasha was just saying how that detonation has caused this massive outage at the airport and other places to include the 911 service, but right now, they're just baffled. another question they have, they're sifting through right now, police tell us, they don't know if the bombmaker, the person responsible for this, perished inside this rv or whether this person is now out and a manhunt is necessary, but whaument we're hearing from them because they have this questions is an appeal to the public. if anyone has information, they want to hear to you, to include that image we showed. that's something we had been waiting on for quite some time, an image of that rv. appears to be a wite econoline van. we don't know whether that was renting, whether the person owned it. having worked investigations, a vehicle investigation is sometimes easier, a bomb involving a vehicle, because you have a unique yoifsidentificati number, a license plate they can try to backtrack, but what they're trying to determine, was anyone in and around the area that recognized this rv pulling up, see anyone get out of it, or perhaps someone who may know someone who owns an rv like this, they want to hear from you. a lot more questions than answers now. >> obviously, authorities have released this image. they want people to city it and know about it, but given they have this image, i'm not sure how extensive the security camera setup is in the historic or downtown district of nashville, but i imagine there's a fair amount of cameras. if they have this image, what are the chances they have images of whoever is driving this and/or a license plate? >> yeah, it's a great question. we don't see a litance plate on the front of the rv. in tennessee, a front license plate is not required so we don't know if they have identification already made, but i think what the goal is with this image being released is to let the public look at this and say, hey, i saw this downtown. if any of us see a vehicle, we usually don't pay much attention, but if you get the imagery, you might be able to say, yeah, i saw someone get out. this person wept this direction. what we're told is they're not only gathering cctv footage in and around downtown nashville, but widening the scope to include the freeways, convenience stores, rest stops, those kind of things. because if this vehicle was inbound to the nashville area from outside and the person never made a stop or was captured on video, they want to backtrack to identify where the vehicle came, but the goal is to trigger in the memory of anyone who might have seen this or may know someone who could be responsible to call authorities if they recognize the rv. >> we're going to check in with both of you throughout the next few hours. we learned president-elect biden has been briefed on the explosion in nashville. earlier, we heard president trump had been briefed. i want to bring in nashville's vice mayor, jim shulman. appreciate you being with us. what are you hearing from nashville police and federal law enforcement about this explosion? >> there's a lot of people working on this right now. it's -- i know our metro police were on the scene very, very early on. obviously, they were called for gunshots. we're still trying to figure out what that meant. and we had officers who were injured during the explosion. the fire department got there, and thou we have our tennessee bureau of investigation and the federal bureau of investigation working on this case. all working together. >> police say that the rv that exploded was playing a recorded warning. do we know anything about the warning, was the voice male or female? >> we think it was female. there's cameras in lots of different places. there was a female voice speaking. it is so strange. what a strange way to open up a christmas morning. it was, we believe it was a female voice. from the video. telling people to evacuate the area. and people did. there were a number of people who did evacuate, and we know some people who it didn't go off when the message said it would, and so people started coming back in. and then it went off. we were very lucky that very few people were actually injured. >> and obviously, police haven't said or at this point don't know whether this was detonated by somebody remotely, whether it was on a timer, that point, am i correct, that's not publicly known at this point? >> that is not publicly known at this point. i think that's going to take a lot more research to figure this one out. again, we have a lot of people working on this. but i mean, what a -- we have been through so much in 2020. what a sad christmas day. but again, three people injured. hopefully that's it. hopefully they all recover. and we have some work to do. hopefully very quickly, to figure out who did this and why. >> and police early on said that they did not have concerns about other devices out there. do you know what they based that on? >> well, so i was down there this morning pretty early. and didn't get very close. they had the area obviously restricted. i actually got out of the elevator right in front of city hall, which is not very far away from where this happened. and they were evacuating buildings in the area. i think they were making sure. they had the bomb sniffing dogs out. i think they were making sure that everybody was safe. and so they really were trying to keep people away so they could make sure that there was nothing else that was going to happen. you know, so far, everybody thinks it's just this one incident. but everybody wanted to be very careful and very safe. >> you know, in the early 1970s in the united states, there were thousands of bombings by mostly left-wing political groups, radical groups back then. it's something that became almost commonplace in the united states back then. it's obviously not commonplace now to have anything like this happen. and back then, it was also often damage to property as opposed to people being targeted. obviously, whoever is behind this, had they wanted to have a mass casualty event, they would have probably gone about it differently, correct? >> well, you know, it was early christmas morning. a lot of people not out. nashville is a place where there's a lot of tourists, but it's obviously a lot of restrictions in place because of the pandemic. early christmas morning, and you are not necessarily in a place where there would have been a lot of traffic anyway. it was kind of off the main street where the honky-tonks are and most of the crowds are. it's a little strange. and we're trying to figure out what it meant. obviously, there's going to be research to figure out why it was right across from an at&t building where there's a lots of communications. though communications have been interrupted. but nobody is quite sure why. and the whole thing is, again, very strange because you had an rv, i think you have seen pictures of it coming in. got to go back and trace it. why were there gunshots? why were the police summoned? obviously summoned because of the gunshots. then why was there a strange recorded message and then an explosion on a street downtown, but on a very quiet street on christmas morning? again, we're pretty lucky. >> just finally on the gunshots, do we know for a fact there were gunshots or just a call about gunshots, and do we know the source of that call. i assume it was a call to 911. do you know if it was from -- is it clear, was it a citizen calling or do police not know? >> we have gotten a lot of information, obviously, there's a lot of stuff flying around today in the city. what we heard early on was there was a call to 911 about gunshots. i have seen at least a witness being interviewed who said there were gunshots. i think this is going to take a little while to uncover. there's a lot of people working on it. don't want to tell you anything that's wrong. i just know that a lot of people are working on it and we're going to get it figured out. >> obviously, often early reports are to be questioned thoroughly because a lot of people see things in the heat of the moment or hear things and it takes a while for things to become clear. i'm sorry we're talking under these circumstances. >> we'll get through this, and i appreciate the time. >> yeah. it's been a tough year for nashville, and they don't need this. >> up next, more on what the federal government is saying about the explosion and a lookt how the quick response of officers likely helped save lives. plus, there incredible doll of the coronavirus on the decemb u.s. december now the deadliest month of the pandemic. ♪ i joined amazon because of the coronavirus on the u.s. december now the deadliest month of the pandemic. and i am impatient. amazon gives me the resources to change the world at a pace that i want to change it. ♪ we provide students stem scholarships and teachers with support. ♪ i'm a fighter and i'm fighting for all students. ♪ ♪ ♪ be it discovering talent in different continents... and entirely different sports, or discovering a smoother whisky by double-aging, sometimes, it's just better to stay curious. dewar's in the wake of this morning's explosion in nashville that authorities are calling intentional, the fbi has set up a tip line for anyone who may know something. cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez has been following the story all morning. the fbi is involved along with the atf. what are they looking for at this point and what kind of resources are being sent to the area? >> they're bringing in resources from around the country. the memphis fbi field office is taking the lead in the investigation, but they're also bringing in the atf and the atf has sent in its national response team. these are some of the best bomb techs in the business. they are going to take a look at if they can find pieces of this device that set this off, this explosion. obviously, they're going to be examining the pieces of that rv that they can find there. examining other evidence from the buildings that were damaged to see whether or not, whether they can determine first of all, was there a timing device, you know, those types of things, questions you were just asking the vice mayor. there's still very, very few clues as to what exactly happened here because obviously, the fact is someone set off a device. 6:00 in the morning, clearly, they weren't trying to cause mass casualties. so what was the point here? what were they trying to do? again, that building right across from where the explosion took place is unoccupied. largely unoccupied technical building owned by at&t. it operates the switches, the exchanges for the phone system there. that's why there's been so much damage there, but we don't know at this point what exactly drove this person to do this. and again, the clues are, they clearly wanted to give a warning to people to stay away from the vehicle. they wanted to draw law enforcement in to the scene, so so many clues they're going to go through, including, of course, the pictures of that vehicle to try to see if they can identify someone inside there. >> yeah, i mean, i'm interested in this, you know, the reports of gunshots, which is what drew police in in the first place. was that -- were there actual gunshots. was it something made to sound like gunshots that then other people would call 911, or is this something that the individual or individuals involved in this bombing actually called in and was it to draw police in to evacuate anyone who may be around or to draw police in to injure police officers? >> exactly. that was one of the first questions we had this morning, because we heard from some of the reports, from some of the neighbors, some of the witnesses that there were reports of gunfire. now, it's quite possible that whatever was broadcasting those warnings, saying, you know, stay away from this vehicle. it's about to explode. it is quite possible whoever was broadcasting that may have been broadcasting sounds of gunfire. that is also possible. so again, at this point, there's so much mystery about exactly what was the motive here, was it to draw the first responders and then set this off to hurt them? or was there something else that was the motive here or that was the point of carrying out what is essentially a vehicle bombing, right? that's what this is. so the investigation clearly, though, anderson, is really early. and they clearly don't have much of an idea of who could be behind this. the fact they have put out this picture tells us a lot. it tells us that they're still searching. they want the public to send as much information as possible because they have very little to go with. >> yeah, evan perez, appreciate it. we'll check back with you shortly. joining me is cnn law enforcement analyst charles ramsey. former philadelphia police commissioner, form eer washingt, d.c. police chief. you say this warning stands out. why? >> it's highly unusual. i don't if there's ever been a case where there's a bombing and a recorded message prior to the detonation. maybe there has been. i have certainly never heard of it. >> you mean at the site? there must be bombings where people call in there's a bomb in a location? >> yeah, but not at the site with an actual audio recording like what they're describing here. so that's unusual in itself. but the fact that they did it at this time of morning, on christmas morning. they did have a warning. obviously, the motive wasn't large loss of life. but then what was the motive? if it wasn't meant to kill a lot of people, then what was the motive? that's something that investigators are going to be really trying to sort through and find out if they're ever able to find out the actual motive. >> how difficult do you really think that would be? because again, if they have released this surveillance video already, security camera video or cctv video of the rv, i would imagine they have other images of it that may give more details about the driver, anybody else in the front seat, any license plate. >> i wouldn't be surprised. they could tell from that one image the direction of travel and so what they'll do is go back and look for any kind of surveillance video at all to find out whether or not they can pick anything up in terms of the movement of the vehicle where it may have originated to try to get a tip or a clue as to who was driving it, is it one person, more than one person, or what have you. so they're going to be pulling out all the stops in order to try to find out exactly what took place. that national response team that atf has is the best in the world, probably, so they're going to be doing a lot of work. it's not only bomb techs. they have chemists that are part of that group to try to find out exactly what kind of explosive was used. all the kind of information that you would expect to have while they're building this case, but right now, they have one heck of a crime scene that stretches literally for blocks up on the ground and also on rooftops that they're going to have to carefully comb through. >> in something like this, the motives could be anything. it could be corporate against some of the businesses on that street. some grudge somebody has. it could be political, trying to make a statement based on some of the businesses on that street. it could just be more random, just to sow terror. there's a lot of potential different motives. >> it could be anything. but they could have also picked that spot because they wanted to minimize any possibility of loss of life or at least, you know, make it a little less likely that that would occur. i mean, 15 minutes is not a lot of time. it's my understanding from the deputy mayor that just spoke that it was a little longer than 15 minutes before the police to be able to evacuate the area. which no doubt, you know, saved lives or at a minimum saved people from serious injury from flying glass or other types of debris from the explosion. >> charles ramsey, appreciate your time. we have more on our breaking news. the city's mayor says there's extraordinary damage but only minor injuries. congressman jim cooper represents the district. he'll join me live. looking to save money this holiday season? look at allstate. drivers who switched & saved, averaged $718 dollars. saving is easy when you're in good hands. call a local agent, or 1-800-allstate for a quote today. people are saving hundreds in a land not so far away, on the most reliable network with xfinity mobile. they can choose from the latest phones or bring their own. and because they get nationwide 5g at no extra cost, they live happily ever after. again! again! your wireless. your rules. your way to stay closer together this holiday season. switch and save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill. and get $150 off when you buy a samsung a series phone. learn more at xfinitymobile.com. new information this hour on the bombing in downtown nashville this morning. the city's vice mayor telling me minutes ago they believe the recorded voice broadcasting a warn about the bomb from the rv was female. the voice in the recording was apparently female. police are calling the incident an intentional act, but so far have not identified any suspects or a motive. i want to bring in congressman jim cooper. thanks for being with us. i'm sorry it's under this circumstances. what is your reaction to today's explosion? >> hey, anderson. this was a terrible shock, especially for christmas morning. the people of nashville are strong, and we'll bounce back, but the fbi is in charge of the investigation now, and i'm sure they'll get to the bottom of it. >> i mean, obviously, nashville has had a tough year. been through a lot, i mean, right now, there's this horrific pandemic, which is just devastating in tennessee. i know you have been in touch with federal authorities. have they told you anything? >> we're still investigating right now, but the picture of the rv is up online, and that will produce rultsesults. there are other resources law enforcement has and the main thing now is to be a careful sifting of the evidence with the cadaver dogs and bomb sniffing dogs and a detailed description of the debris, and the fbi is the best in the world at that, and local law enforcement is good, too. we talked about the local fire department, local police. they're awesome. a terrible way to spend a christmas day, but they're giving it their best. >> you represent the area. we know the rv exploded around 6:20 something this morning. central time. there obviously were not a lot of people in this area. do you make anything of where this rv was parked? is there any significance you glean from just the location? >> i'm on that street every monday for our rotary club meeting that meets at the wild horse saloon, which is one block down and not hurt, but soy many other businesses were hurt. bars, restaurants, and their condos and the upper stories. the big building where the rv was parked is right in front of the at&t switch building, which is a nondescript looking building that was 15 stories tall. but it seems to have serious structural damage. the exterior damage was worse in that building. and it's really a pretty devastating blow to that building. as a result, i know i have no wi-fi in my house. countless people in middle tennessee, southern kentucky, and northern alabama don't have phone, internet, or tv service. and even the nashville airport was shut down for a while this morn. at&t is a vital carrier. we need them back online. but even their backup generators were crippled by the accident. >> do you think it's a coincidence this was outside that building? >> i don't. you know, i'm suspicious of terrorism in general, including domestic terrorism, and there's a lot of crazy conspiracy theories out there, but this was not just a harmless building. it's a vital building if you want to communicate in our society. at&t is a wonderful company, and we need to keep them all strong. i consider this a serious and intentional attack on american infrastructure, and i don't know anybody who would do that except a terrorist. >> congressman cooper, appreciate your time. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, anderson. >> the white house says president trump has been briefed on the explosion that police are calling an intentional act in downtown nashville. jeremy diamond is in west palm beach where the president is spending the holiday. we learned president-elect booirdz has also been briefed. have we heard from president trump today? >> we haven't heard from president trump on this explosion directly, but we do know from the deputy white house press secretary that the president was indeed briefed today. the president was spending about five hours at his golf course this morning but at some point, perhaps between rounds of golf, it appears the president was briefed on this incident. judd deer says president trump has been briefed on the explosion in nashville, tennessee, and will continue to receive regular updates. he said the president is greatful for the incredible first responders and praying for those who were injured. we were expecting we might see the president on camera later today. the president is delivering an address to the troops, christmas day message at some point today, but the president taking to twitter to say that news media would not be invited to that. despite the fact that in recent years he's invited cameras and reporters in to witness that and he tends to actually make news at those events, but today, we're not expecting to see the president anymore. we have a lid from the white house, which means we're not expecting to see the president on camera at all today. >> all right, jeremy diamond, thank you. up next, we take you to california where the l.a. county health department is sharing a heartbreaking new statistic. deaths spiking so acutely in the county from coronavirus that now someone is dying every ten minutes. christmas day in the u.s. pandemic is breaking all the wrong records. more hospitalizations than ever before. 120,000 people fighting covid. december has just become the deadliest month so far in the entire pandemic, as it also records the most infections of any month during the crisis. more than 60,000 lives lost this month with more than 4.8 million new cases. cnn's alexandra field has more on the incredible challenges facing hospitals today. >> this christmas, the one we never imagined. >> it was january 1st of this year when most of us heard about the covid-19 pandemic starting out of hubei provis in china. i never believed we would get to 330,000 american lives lost by christmas day, and still accelerating at 3,000 deaths a day. >> almost 1 in every 1,000 americans killed by covid this year. in l.a. county, a person died from covid every ten minutes. there are no icu beds left in southern california or the san joaquin valley. >> when our icus get overwhelmed, we saw this in march and april in southern europe and new york city, that's how the mortality numbers skyrocket. this is happening now all across the country. we're reproducing that manhattan and new york city epidemic from march and april now times dozens of times. >> despite a clear warning from the cdc that travel can increase your chance of getting and spreading covid-19, more than 7 million people passed through america's airports in the last week. >> i think people don't think coronavirus will happen to them. they think coronavirus will happen to another family. but there is no safety other than those public health measures we have been preaching from the mountain tops. >> new travel restrictions go into effect on monday. passengers coming from the uk will need a negative covid test within 72 hours of boarding a flight and documentation of the results. that as concerns grow that a variant of the virus discovered there could be more trance miscible. >> we're investigating to see if this new strain is equally sensitive to our vaccine and also would be neutralized by our vaccine. >> pfizer's ceo says he's cautiously optimistic the vaccine will prove as effective against the variant. dr. fauci now estimates 70% to 85% of the country will need the vaccine to get to herd immunity. >> it will take maybe half a year or more for us to get to herd immunity in this country. so that everybody is able to be protected from coronavirus, and in that meantime, we still have to really double down and do the masking, physical distancing, avoiding indoor gatherings. >> the suffering this holiday season, unprecedented. for most americans, even the first dose of the vaccine is still months away, but another surge may be just days out. >> we're just seeing daily cases just amplify and amplify and amplify. so christmas, today, is going to do a similar thing. >> alexandra field reporting. now for some expert analysis, dr. lena wen is an emergency medicine physician. what's happened in california? the state is the first in the nation to surpass 2 million cases. the l.a. county health director said a person is dying there every ten minutes from covid. as a public health official, what do you prioritize when the spread and deaths have reached these levels? >> it's really hard, anderson, because at that point, you know you cannot just do testing and contact tracing alone. that you really need to rely on mitigation measures, and even masking is not going to be sufficient at that point. people really need to be staying home and not gathering. and i so worry not only about los angeles but also all over the country because we have viral hot spots basically everywhere. we have a surge upon a surge. so many of our hospitals are filled now with the gatherings as a consequence of the gatherings that occurred over thanksgiving. and i'm afraid that the christmas surge is going to be even worse. >> doctor, anthony fauci says it may take vaccinating at much as 85% of the country to reach herd immunity. do you think that's possible? >> that's a lot of people that we need to be vaccinating and i think what dr. fauci is saying is we don't really know. we initially were estimating maybe we need about 70% of the population to be vaccinated. now we're seeing this virus is so widespread that people are so susceptible to it, now there are these variants that are spreading even faster than covid-19 that we already knew to be highly contagious, so that's getting revised upward. we know we need to get the vaccine into the arms of as many people as possible and we need to do public out reach, because the vaccine isn't going to do good if it's sitting on shelves. >> people are traveling for the holidays. at least 7 million people have been going through airports. that's not counting people driving. i mean, obviously, that's a huge concern. >> that's right. i worry about people gathering in airports, on planes, but more so, i worry about what people are doing once they get to the destination. because almost certainly, people are traveling to see someone. they're going to see family and friends. they're probably going to have dinner indoors without wearing masks for prolonged periods of time, so i just would urge everyone at this point, consider moving things outdoors as much as you can. limit your indoor time. if you have to be indoors, wear a mask the entire time, try not to eat and drink indoors. i know this is really hard because people have made so many different sacrifices in 2020. but we don't have that much more to go, and we just have to get through this very difficult holiday ahead. >> what about the new restriction on travelers from the uk due to the more infectious variant? is requiring a negative test three days before boarding a flight effective? >> so i think it's a step in the right direction because we are going to find some people who are asymptomatic and don't know it, and testing positive means we can take them out of circulation. they will know they're positive. they're not going to be making that trip, but i also think we need to go a lot further. we should also be mandating quarantine at the time that people arrive, and then doing a test to make sure that they're still negative after that quarantine period, and frankly, it should not just be people coming from the uk. there's a new variant in south africa as well and we know there is so much virus that's all across the u.s., so ideally, you have testing, quarantining, and contact tracing, isolation, all these measures for all kinds of travel happening within the u.s. as well. >> yeah. dr. wen, i appreciate it. thank you. >> up next, return to the breaking news out of nashville. we speak with a reporter in nashville who is all too familiar with the area impacted in today's explosion. ♪ ♪ be it discovering talent in different continents... and entirely different sports, or discovering a smoother whisky by double-aging, sometimes, it's just better to stay curious. dewar's shatter eed glass, burnt sidewalks, massive degree in mashville after a bomb exploded in what authorities are calling an intentional incident. still no clarity on who or an individual or individuals were behind the massive explosion. a political reporter for the tennessean joins us from nashville. what have you seen where you are? >> yeah, i mean, like you said, we're seeing a lot of shattered glass, damaged buildings, all on the sidewalk, we're seeing bricks and debris from the buildings. for a while, there was water in the streets with the water coming down into the buildings. because fire alarms are going off, and you know, it's a historic, you know, district there along this path on lower broadway part of nashville for people who visit here. and right now, it's completely different from what we know. >> is it clear at this point, the police have talked about there were reports about shots fired, which is what drew officers to that location, when they then discovered this rv with this recording. are you aware at this point of exactly how they were told there were shots fired? was it a 911 call? is it believed it could have been from the person involved or persons involved in this, or was it from civilians who heard, you know, just live nearby? do you know? >> yeah, you know, along this district, there's a lot of apartment buildings and lofts on top of the businesses and a few people called 911 reporting shots fired. and so it's still unclear, you know, where that sound came from. you know, i think the idea is that, you know, it might have either been part of the recording as part of this warning that came from the rv or there could have been shots fired in the area. at this point, police say there have been no evidence of that. when police arrived to the scene, they're responding to the shots fired, they didn't see that, but instead they saw this rv and it started playing this recording saying this is a bomb. you need to evacuate now. so at that point, they started going door to door, trying to get people out of the area, including one gentleman who had a dog walking down the street, and so that 15-minute countdown to this explosion going off really gave authorities the time to clear the area and potentially save lives here. >> and this area of the city where the bomb went off, it's the historic district, downtown. a lot of people have already said this, but obviously, christmas morning at 6:32 a.m., which is when the device is reported to have gone off, not a lot of people around. >> yeah. i think a lot of people are coming to that idea that had this not been christmas morning, it would have been a lot worse. i mean, even on any given early morning, that area could be busy. again, it's right alongside lower broadway, which is a huge tourist attraction. and there are times where people are still hanging out early into the early mornings so had it not been christmas, there could have been more potential for injuries here. >> i appreciate your time. thank you. thank you. >> i want to bring back cnn security correspondent josh campbell. what are the big questions outstanding for you in this investigation at this stage? >> well, first question is the location of the person that was responsible for this. the last we heard from police in talking with our sources is they don't know if this individual perished in the explosion, if there was someone inside that rv, or if this was detonated remotely and the person is now out there on the run. we're being told they're treating it as both variants there. they're obviously processing the scene, but then also, they have this massive manhunt under way checking with witnesses, checking with cctv, in and around that area, just in case. they're trying to identify that person. of course, these investigations go hand in hand. once they're able to process this vehicle and try to get any type of identifying information off that vehicle, that may then lead them to that person as well. so a big question there, and then obviously, the largest question, you know, that we have is the motivation. this is one source has called so bizarre kn baffling because you obviously have an explosion. a very violent act, but it was telegraphed. you had police arriving and hearing this recording going off, telling people, warning them there was a bomb that was about to explode. which is not something that you would typically do if your goal is to cause mass loss of life, so a huge question on the motivation. >> you said individual. is it clear that -- at this point, there could be multiple people involved in this, no? >> yeah, that's right. and authorities aren't going to rule that out. they're not going to just look at one person. this is just like any terrorism investigation. it could be a network, it could be one person. they're very much in the early stages, but again, processing the scene, and once they answer the question about whether they find some type of human remains or something there and try to process that, that's also a key component. just right now, there's so many questions for them, and they're not leaving anything to chance. we have seen incidents in the past where someone will commit a violent act and then flee. that's why you have the fbi with this massive network where they can look in the state of tennessee and in and around that area. the law enforcement in and around that region is part of this, and will be called in as needed in order to try to provide any tips they can. >> you know, the vice mayor we talked to earlier was saying it was a female voice on the recording coming from the rv. saying evacuate now, evacuate the area, saying there was an explosive device. interesting that it would be a female voice. i don't know what to make of it. whether that person is involved in this in some way or if it was some sort of automated -- i mean, i'm not really sure what to make of it. >> yeah, i can tell you having listened to some of the videos that are out there on social media that we have not cleared ourselves, this is not something that we are independently confirming, but one of the voices that was heard on one video that appears to be from the scene sounds like an automated female voice. we don't know if that's connected with that, but we heard from authorities there was this recording, and the mayor said that was a female, so that could be one and the same, but trying to get into the mindset of someone who would conduct an attack like this, let's call it what it is, a violent explosion going off in a downtown city street, trying to get in that mind set of why you would warn people, what the motivation is, and maybe if it is automated, the person didn't want his or her voice to be used. many more questions there. i think, and i have been saying this all day, it's a matter of time. we'll probably learn soon the identity of this person. unlike, i know you have covered war zones and bombings as well. this isn't a bomb left on the side of the street or in a bag. they're tying this device to a vehicle which is so simple these days for law enforcement to track, the providence of that vehicle, whether it's a rental or owned by somebody, by the unique identifying numbers that are on a vehicle, so i think it's just a matter of time. and you have investigators doing this full court press to try to identify this person and bring them into custody. >> josh, i appreciate it. we'll continue to check in with you. we go live to nashville where officials have released an image of the rv josh was talking about. ilitieser now at the center of the massive explosion investigation. hat people remember commercials with exciting stunts. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's something you shouldn't try at home... look, liberty mutual customizes home insurance so we only pay for what we need. it's pretty cool. that is cool! grandma! very cool. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ or psoriatic arthritis, little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. good afternoon. i'm anderson cooper with more breaking developments on the christmas day explosion in downtown nashville. an intentional act, according to local law enforcement. authorities have not identified a suspect or suspects yet or indicated a motive. we're awaiting the next update from officials. we expect that in about an hour or so. but we now have a picture of the vehicle tied to the blast by authorities. police responded to reports of gunfire at 5:30 a.m. local time in nashville. they came upon this rv that was playing a recorded warning that a bomb would explode in 15 minutes. then we're told around 6:30 a.m. local time, it did. they say that is the rv that had the explosive device inside it. that picture, they say, was taken about 1:22 a.m. here's some video. some far away, just gives you a slight sense of the power of this, given how far away that image was. here's another camera that captured the moment
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