Communications outages continue in Tennessee as FBI pursues hundreds of leads in alleged Nashville bombing

Parts of Tennessee are still experiencing communications outages after a bomb allegedly exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas Day, damaging an AT&T central office in the process.

The blast, which resulted in non-critical injuries but no known fatalities, affected police emergency systems in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama, as well as Nashville's COVID-19 community hotline, and some hospital systems in Tennessee, South Carolina, and West Virginia, The Associated Press reports. One of the hospitals affected in Tennessee said it lost access to some of its systems, but was prepared "for situations like this" and "moved immediately to paper records" without "disruption to the delivery of patient care."

People living in the area have reported going a full day without cell or internet service.

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Law enforcement officials are convinced the bombing was intentional, but it's unclear if the AT&T building was targeted specifically.

As things stand, the FBI has taken the lead in the investigation. The agency has not settled on a motive or suspect(s), and the bureau is reportedly pursuing around 500 leads. Read more at The Associated Press. Tim O'Donnell