Police name Nashville bomber who died in explosion as Anthony Quinn Warner

Officials have named 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner as the man behind the mysterious explosion

Credit: FBI

The blast wrought havoc, knocking out police emergency systems in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama for a whole day.

It also disrupted the internet and fibre optic services in five states: Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia as well as grounding flights at Nashville Airport.

Estate agent, Steve Fridrich, who employed Quinn as an information technology consultant, said he was asked by police whether he had expressed any views about the conspiracy theory that 5G technology was being used to spy on ordinary Americans.

Mr Fridrich, one of 500 people who contacted the authorities, said he had not.

Another more prosaic explanation could be linked to a family connection to the telecommunications giant. Newsweek reports that Warner’s father had worked for BellSouth, which was bought out by AT&T.

Federal agents spent Sunday combing through  Warner’s home at Antioch, Tennessee, 12 miles from the scene of the bombing.

A motorhome – or recreational vehicle – matching the one used in the Nashville attack was seen parked outside the building.

Neighbours described Warner as an “oddball” who was often spotted fiddling with an antenna above the house.

Steve Schmoldt,  who lived next door said some people would describe him as a "little odd".

He told the Tennessean. “You never saw anyone come and go, never saw him go anywhere. As far as we knew, he was kind of a computer geek that worked at home.”

Warner was known to have extensive electrical knowledge, at one point owning a company which installed burglar alarms.

Police also disclosed that in addition to broadcasting a warning about an imminent explosion, the 1960s Petula Clark hit “Downtown” was played at full blast from the motorhome.

Crucial evidence was strewn over a large area, making the task for investigators and bomb experts more difficult.