The man believed to be responsible for the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville died in the explosion, police have confirmed.

Anthony Quinn Warner was named as the sole suspect in the bombing by US attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, Don Cochran.

"We've come to the conclusion that an individual named Anthony Warner is the bomber. He was present when the bomb went off and then he perished," said Mr Cochran.

Warner, 63, of Antioch, Tennessee, had earlier in the day been named as a “person of interest” by police probing the blast.

DNA taken from the scene was successfully matched to Warner by forensic analysts, said Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch.

Nashville’s police chief said no one else was believed to have participated in the shocking incident.

“There’s no indication presently that anyone else was involved” said Metro Police Chief John Drake.

“Nashville is safe.”

Three people were injured in the blast early on  Friday and as many as 41 buildings were damaged.

Six police officers in the city’s downtown area raised the alarm and evacuated residents after a message from the RV told officers that it was set to explode.

The white RV involved was detonated outside an AT&T transmission building and was playing the 1964 hit “Downtown” by Petula Clark.

Federal investigators searched a home in Antioch, which records show was owned by Warner until he signed it over to a woman on 25 November.

Nashville’s mayor has said that the bomber was likely motivated by a wish to damage the AT&T building.

“To all of us locally, it feels like there has to be some connection with the AT&T facility and the site of the bombing," said John Cooper on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Damage to the AT&T building knocked out phone and Internet service in large parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and northern Alabama. 

A bomb squad was also called into action on Sunday in nearby Rutherford County, Tennessee, when a small lorry was found in a parking lot playing music similar to that heard from the RV before it exploded.

Authorities detained the driver and searched the truck but say that no explosive material was found in the lorry.