Improvised explosive device detonates outside Las Vegas restaurant; no injuries

An improvised explosive device detonated outside a restaurant near the Las Vegas Strip early Thursday, damaging the building but injuring no one, according to officials. The suspects have not been arrested.

The explosion occurred at about 2:19 a.m. local time on Thursday at Piero’s, a restaurant on Convention Center Drive across from the Las Vegas Convention Center, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Police said two males dressed in black approached the front entrance and placed the device, which one of them ignited. The building was unoccupied, and the device detonated several moments later.

The damage was discovered at 10:36 a.m., when a cleaning crew arrived for work and called police. Investigators from LVMPD’s ARMOR Section and Counterterrorism Section responded, along with federal partners from the FBI and ATF. The two suspects have not been located.

Sheriff Kevin McMahill said there is no indication of an ongoing threat. “The community remains safe,” he said during a briefing.

The restaurant is about a block from the Las Vegas Strip and roughly a mile east of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, where a vehicle bombing on January 1 injured seven bystanders. The driver responsible for the blast died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound moments before the explosion.

Police have not indicated any connection between the two incidents. The investigation into Thursday’s explosion remains ongoing.