The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily suspended flights from Nashville International Airport on Friday after an explosion in the center of the city early on Christmas morning, The Associated Press reported.
Flights were suspended due to a telecommunications problem related to the explosion, according to the news line, and service was expected to resume around 3 p.m. local time.
An FAA spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
The explosion, near a building owned by AT&T, also caused widespread communication failures that destroyed police emergency systems, AP reported.
“We don’t know if that was a coincidence or if that was the intention,” police spokesman Don Aaron said, according to the news report.
Jim Greer, an AT&T spokesperson, said some customers may have service issues, but the company declined to say how widespread the outages were.
“Service for some customers in Nashville and surrounding areas may be affected by damage to our facilities as a result of the explosion this morning. We are in contact with the police and are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore the service, ”Greer said in an emailed statement to AP.
The outage has reportedly affected parts of Tennessee and Kentucky. According to AP, several police stations reported that their 911 systems were down due to the outage.
Law enforcement officials said earlier in the day that three people were taken to hospital with minor injuries and that several buildings were damaged, some severely, as a result of the explosion at the center that they said was intentional.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake said officers responded to a distress call from gunshots downtown around 5:30 a.m. and found a RV was playing a recording saying a potential bomb would detonate in 15 minutes.
Officials then evacuated nearby buildings, Drake said.
Drake said authorities are sweeping the downtown area as a precaution, but during a Friday afternoon briefing, he said officials do not feel there is any further danger.
Both President Trump
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Updated at 5:01 PM