Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel: Driver whose truck exploded on New Year's Day was 'active US special forces member'

On Thursday, the US Army said that Livelsberger had died - but did not explicitly say it was in the dramatic New Year's Day explosion.

And now, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation has confirmed he was an "active" special forces member, according to CNN.

Matthew Alan Livelsberger was an 'active-duty US Army Green Beret'

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Smoke had been seen pouring out from near the hotel's lobby on January 1 - with early eyewitness reports saying an explosion had taken place.

Further footage then emerged appearing to show a Tesla Cybertruck in flames just metres from the Trump International's front door, with fire and smoke pouring out of the electric vehicle.

Then, a CCTV recording from the scene showed the car violently bursting into flames as sparks flew across the street.

Tesla owner Elon Musk was quick to take to his social media platform to address the chaos.

The US Army did not explicitly say Livelsberger's death was in the dramatic New Year's Day explosion

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He said his car firm's senior team had "never seen anything like this" - before hailing how the "evil knuckleheads" behind the blast "picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack".

The Cybertruck "actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken", he wrote.

Musk also confirmed that the explosion was "caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck" and was "unrelated to the vehicle itself".

Las Vegas's Clark County Fire Department Deputy Chief Thomas Touchstone said that as first responders began to extinguish the fire, they "realised at the same time that there were multiple persons with injuries located around the vehicle."