First picture of Nashville suicide bomber after Christmas Day motor home explosion

The first picture of the prime suspect in what is believed to be a suicide bombing on Christmas Day has emerged.

Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, was killed in the blast that rocked the Tennessee capital Nashville on December 25 morning, destroying his motor home and damaging more than 40 businesses, authorities have said.

FBI forensic experts matched DNA samples recovered from the scene to that of Warner, whose home in nearby Antioch was searched on Saturday by federal agents.

"We've come to the conclusion that an individual named Anthony Warner is the bomber and he was present when the bomb went off and that he perished in the bombing," Donald Cochran, US Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, told a news conference.

CBS News has obtained what appears to be a custody photo that the network reports law enforcement sources have confirmed is of Warner and being used in the investigation.

Officials said it was too early in the investigation to discuss the suspect's motives.

Warner's $160,000 home had been transferred for free to 29-year-old Michelle Swing on November 25 - but she claims she was unaware of the exchange, reports the Daily Mail.

Authorities swabbed the suspect's mother for DNA to determine if he is a match to the remains found, according to Newsweek.

Warner's motor home, parked on a downtown street, exploded at dawn on Friday moments after police responding to reports of gunfire noticed it and heard music and an automated message emanating from the vehicle warning of a bomb.

The 1964 soul hit 'Downtown' by Petula Clark was said to be playing before the bomb went off.

The explosion injured three people and damaged businesses including an AT&T switching centre, disrupting mobile, internet and TV services across central Tennessee and parts of four other states.

As investigators followed up on hundreds of tips from members of the public, they searched Warner's home on Saturday and visited a Nashville real estate agency where he had worked on computers.

The owner of Fridrich & Clark Realty, Steve Fridrich, told the Tennessean newspaper that for four or five years Warner had come into the office roughly once a month to provide computer consulting services.

However, earlier this month Warner told the company in an email that he would no longer be working for them.

He gave no reason, according to Fridrich.

"He seemed very personable to us - this is quite out of character I think," Fridrich told the newspaper.

Neighbours claim they have been asked whether he exhibited 5G 'paranoia'.

Conspiracy theories baselessly connecting the 5G mobile network to the coronavirus  pandemic have previously led to attacks on mobile masts worldwide.

An AT&T building in Nashville, Tennessee, was destroyed in the Christmas Day blast, causing internet outages in four states.

Glass sits in the street outside the Exchange Lofts near the Christmas Day explosion

Nashville Mayor John Cooper said on CBS News' Face the Nation programme yesterday that local officials felt there had to be some connection between the bombing and the building.

Damage to the switching centre was so extensive that AT&T teams had to drill access holes into the wreckage to connect generators to critical equipment, as well as pump three feet of water from the basement.

The company said in a statement on Sunday that it made "significant progress" overnight and had restored power to four floors of the building.

At a news conference on Sunday, five Nashville police officers who were on the scene early on Friday recalled the dramatic moments ahead of the explosion.

They scrambled to evacuate homes and buildings and called for a bomb squad, which was en route when the motor home blew up.

"I was thrown forward, knocked to the ground," officer Brenna Hosey told reporters about the moment of the explosion.

"But I was able to catch myself, I was fine."

The officers have been hailed as heroes by city leaders.

The Daily Beast reported that Warner was previously arrested in January 1978 and found guilty on an unspecified felony charge in 1980.