Authorities are investigating a possible military connection between the New Orleans carjacking suspect and the person who died after a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day, two law enforcement sources familiar with the cases told NBC News.

The possible connection was just one thread drawn Thursday by officers who were also searching a site in Texas, a day after a man drove a pickup truck with an ISIS flag onto busy Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day in New Orleans was the day that killed 15 people and injured at least 30 others.

The FBI is investigating the case as an act of terrorism. Authorities are still looking for “persons of interest,” Anne Kirkpatrick, superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, told NBC News’ “TODAY” program on Thursday.

Hours after the attack in New Orleans, the explosion in Las Vegas triggered increased security measures around Trump Towers in New York and Chicago. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, who will take office later this month.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that “law enforcement and intelligence agencies” are investigating “whether there is a possible connection” between the incidents.

The New Orleans suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, who died in a subsequent shootout with police, was a U.S. citizen, Texas resident and Army veteran. He worked in the military’s human resources and information technology departments between 2006 and 2020, including a deployment to Afghanistan in 2009.

The suspect in the Trump Tower explosion in Las Vegas, who has not been publicly identified by law enforcement, also had military experience, two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said. They did not elaborate, emphasizing that the investigation is still ongoing.

Both vehicles were rented from the same company, Turo, and officials are investigating whether there is a connection. Turo said it is “actively working with law enforcement as they investigate both incidents.”

In New Orleans, it was supposed to be a celebratory night on one of the country’s most famous party streets, a popular tourist area in the French Quarter full of bars and restaurants. However, around 3:15 a.m. a scene of horror occurred. Witnesses and social media videos described bloody, mutilated bodies lying strewn across the road as the truck sped down the road before crashing.

“This man was trying to run over as many people as possible,” Police Commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick said at a news conference. “He was determined to cause the carnage and the damage that he did.”

As more details emerged about the victims and mourners flocked to the scene to lay flowers, questions were raised about how the driver was able to bypass barriers designed to keep pedestrians safe.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the bollards were not installed because they were still under construction. She said the project is nearly complete and is expected to be completed before New Orleans hosts the Super Bowl in February.

Jabbar lived in Texas, and later Wednesday the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said it was conducting a court-authorized search of a site in Houston that included an FBI SWAT team, negotiators, bomb technicians and a group of investigators involved in combating terrorism.

There have been no arrests, the FBI Houston said in an update late Wednesday.

Murrill, Louisiana’s attorney general, told NBC News that investigators suspected explosive devices related to the New Orleans attack were made at an Airbnb in the city rented by those involved. There was a potential improvised explosive device in the truck, and other potential IEDs were discovered in the French Quarter, the FBI said.

Meanwhile, the Sugar Bowl college football game between Georgia and Notre Dame is scheduled to take place Thursday at the Superdome in New Orleans after being postponed until Wednesday night.