Nashville
NashvilleiStock

At least three people were injured on Friday in an explosion that rocked downtown Nashville and which authorities believe was an intentional act.

According to police, officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department were responding to a call of shots fired around 5:30 a.m. CT Friday when they came upon an RV parked in front of an AT&T transmission building at 166 2nd Avenue North.

The RV was playing a recorded message that indicated a bomb would explode in 15 minutes, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said during a news conference Friday, according to CNN.

Officers saw no immediate evidence of shots fired but they requested the department's hazardous devices unit and started to evacuate neighborhood residents, police said.

The bomb squad was responding when the RV exploded at 6:30 a.m. CT, police spokesman Don Aaron said.

"We do believe this to have been an intentional act," he said. "Significant damage has been done to the infrastructure there on 2nd Avenue North."

Three people were transported to hospitals from the scene, but none were in critical condition.

There were no known credible threats in the Nashville area that would have signaled an impending attack on or before Christmas, a federal law enforcement source told CNN.

The White House said that President Donald Trump has been briefed on the incident as well and would receive "regular updates."

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement on Twitter that the state would "supply all the resources needed" to determine the cause of the explosion.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)