Two bombs rock Boston Marathon, at least two killed, dozens hurt..video
Two bombs ripped through the crowd at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing two people and injuring dozens in what a White House official said would be handled as an "act of terror."
President Barack Obama promised to hunt down whoever was responsible for the attack {video attached } on a day when tens of thousands of spectators pack the streets to watch the world-famous race.
Many runners were heading for the finish when a fireball and smoke rose from behind cheering spectators and a row of flags representing the countries of participants, video from the scene showed.
The cheers turned to screams and panic.
"It sounded like a sonic boom. I haven't stopped shaking yet," said Melissa Stanley, who watched her daughter cross the finish line four minutes before the explosions.
Ambulances, fire trucks and dozens of police vehicles converged at the scene, and spectators could be seen crying and consoling each other.
The dead included an 8-year-old boy, the Globe reported, citing two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation.
"I saw people who looked like they had their legs blown off. There was a lot of blood over their legs. Then people were being pushed in wheelchairs," said Joe Anderson, 33, a fisherman from Pembroke, Massachusetts, who had just run the race holding a large U.S. flag.
The blasts put police on alert in major cities across the United States, including in Washington, D.C. and New York City, sites of the September 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks.
Four Boston area-hospitals contacted by Reuters reported a total of at least 67 hurt. Some of those may have been hospitalized for treatment from running the marathon. The Boston Globe newspaper reported that more than 100 people were hurt.
Two high-level U.S. law enforcement officials, who declined to be identified, said one or more bombs caused the explosions at the scene of the marathon, which is run annually on the state holiday Patriots' Day.
"These were powerful devices that resulted in serious injury," Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told reporters.
About an hour after the 2:50 p.m. EDT (1850 GMT) blasts in Boston's Copley Square marred the usually joyous end to the marathon, a fire erupted at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library three miles away, but no one was injured, police said. Authorities were uncertain whether the fire was related, Davis said.
In Washington, Obama told reporters, "Make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this and we will find out who did this."
He said "any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice."
No suspect was in custody. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Justice Department, Homeland Security Department and other agencies were all investigating, authorities said.
"EVIL, EVIL, EVIL"
Runners from the marathon and others went to the Massachusetts General Hospital offering to donate blood.
"This was evil, evil, evil," said Kevin Garboit, 46, from the hospital lobby, asking staff if he could donate blood. He was told to come back Tuesday morning.
Without knowing who perpetrated the attack, the White House said it was handling the incident as "an act of terror."
"Any event with multiple explosive devices - as this appears to be - is clearly an act of terror, and will be approached as an act of terror," a White House official said.
The two explosions were about 50 to 100 yards (meters) apart as runners crossed the finish line with a timer showing 4 hours and 9 minutes, some 9 minutes faster than the average finish time, as reported by Runner's World magazine.
Of the 23,326 runners who started the race on Monday, 17,584 finished before the blast, marathon officials said. Runners were diverted before officials brought the marathon to a halt.
Spectators typically line the 26.2 mile race course, with the heaviest crowds near the finish line.
Mike Mitchell of Vancouver, Canada, a runner who had finished the race, said he was looking back at the finish line and saw a "massive explosion."
Smoke rose 50 feet in the air, Mitchell said. People began running and screaming after hearing the noise, Mitchell said.
"Everybody freaked out," Mitchell said.
The Boston Marathon has been held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April, since 1897. The event, which starts in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and ends in Boston's Copley Square, attracts an estimated half-million spectators and some 20,000 participants every year.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra cancelled Monday night's concert and the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins canceled their home game against the Ottawa Senators. The Boston Red Sox had completed their Major League Baseball game at Fenway Park before the explosions.
President Barack Obama promised to hunt down whoever was responsible for the attack {video attached } on a day when tens of thousands of spectators pack the streets to watch the world-famous race.
Many runners were heading for the finish when a fireball and smoke rose from behind cheering spectators and a row of flags representing the countries of participants, video from the scene showed.
The cheers turned to screams and panic.
"It sounded like a sonic boom. I haven't stopped shaking yet," said Melissa Stanley, who watched her daughter cross the finish line four minutes before the explosions.
Ambulances, fire trucks and dozens of police vehicles converged at the scene, and spectators could be seen crying and consoling each other.
The dead included an 8-year-old boy, the Globe reported, citing two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation.
"I saw people who looked like they had their legs blown off. There was a lot of blood over their legs. Then people were being pushed in wheelchairs," said Joe Anderson, 33, a fisherman from Pembroke, Massachusetts, who had just run the race holding a large U.S. flag.
The blasts put police on alert in major cities across the United States, including in Washington, D.C. and New York City, sites of the September 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks.
Four Boston area-hospitals contacted by Reuters reported a total of at least 67 hurt. Some of those may have been hospitalized for treatment from running the marathon. The Boston Globe newspaper reported that more than 100 people were hurt.
Two high-level U.S. law enforcement officials, who declined to be identified, said one or more bombs caused the explosions at the scene of the marathon, which is run annually on the state holiday Patriots' Day.
"These were powerful devices that resulted in serious injury," Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told reporters.
About an hour after the 2:50 p.m. EDT (1850 GMT) blasts in Boston's Copley Square marred the usually joyous end to the marathon, a fire erupted at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library three miles away, but no one was injured, police said. Authorities were uncertain whether the fire was related, Davis said.
In Washington, Obama told reporters, "Make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this and we will find out who did this."
He said "any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice."
No suspect was in custody. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Justice Department, Homeland Security Department and other agencies were all investigating, authorities said.
"EVIL, EVIL, EVIL"
Runners from the marathon and others went to the Massachusetts General Hospital offering to donate blood.
"This was evil, evil, evil," said Kevin Garboit, 46, from the hospital lobby, asking staff if he could donate blood. He was told to come back Tuesday morning.
Without knowing who perpetrated the attack, the White House said it was handling the incident as "an act of terror."
"Any event with multiple explosive devices - as this appears to be - is clearly an act of terror, and will be approached as an act of terror," a White House official said.
The two explosions were about 50 to 100 yards (meters) apart as runners crossed the finish line with a timer showing 4 hours and 9 minutes, some 9 minutes faster than the average finish time, as reported by Runner's World magazine.
Of the 23,326 runners who started the race on Monday, 17,584 finished before the blast, marathon officials said. Runners were diverted before officials brought the marathon to a halt.
Spectators typically line the 26.2 mile race course, with the heaviest crowds near the finish line.
Mike Mitchell of Vancouver, Canada, a runner who had finished the race, said he was looking back at the finish line and saw a "massive explosion."
Smoke rose 50 feet in the air, Mitchell said. People began running and screaming after hearing the noise, Mitchell said.
"Everybody freaked out," Mitchell said.
The Boston Marathon has been held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April, since 1897. The event, which starts in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and ends in Boston's Copley Square, attracts an estimated half-million spectators and some 20,000 participants every year.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra cancelled Monday night's concert and the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins canceled their home game against the Ottawa Senators. The Boston Red Sox had completed their Major League Baseball game at Fenway Park before the explosions.
A third explosion was heard just before 4 p.m., about an hour after the first two blasts, at the nearby John F. Kennedy Library. The police later said that episode may have been unrelated.
The two explosions, which occurred seconds apart, created a chaotic scene, as wounded runners and bloodied spectators were helped to a nearby tent that was being used for weary runners, The Associated Press reported. Some were crying and several said they saw limbs on the ground.
Many blocks around the race’s finish line were cordoned off while the police began an investigation.
Police officials said they did not yet have any suspects in custody. A person briefed on preliminary developments in the investigation said that members of Boston’s Joint Terrorist Task Force were at Brigham and Women’s Hospital interviewing a wounded man seen running from the scene of the two blasts, near 671 Boylston Street. The person said that police investigators had contacted the local gas and electric company and determined that the explosions were not related to gas or electrical service.
The authorities also found a device at St. James and Trinity Streets that did not explode, the person said, and two other devices were found, including one in Newton, outside of Boston.
The Mandarin, Marriott and Lenox hotels were evacuated because of reports of suspicious packages, but no confirmed explosive devices have yet been found at those hotels.
The person also said that the maritime security level in Boston was raised from level one to level two; three is the highest level.
“We’re treating this as an ongoing event at this time,” Edward F. Davis, Boston’s police commissioner, said at a late afternoon news conference.
He said he was unsure whether the first two explosions were related, but that his department was treating them as such. He added that the police had no advance warning of the explosions.
The commissioner declined to call the blasts a terrorist attack, but said, “you can reach your own conclusions about what happened here.”
At the White House, President Obama said that those responsible would “feel the full weight of justice.”
Several news outlets reported that a loud explosion was heard on the north side of Boylston Street, near a photo bridge that marks the finish line, at about 3 p.m. Another explosion was heard shortly afterward. The first two blasts occurred about 50 to 100 yards apart, Mr. Davis said, about four hours after the start of the men’s race, which meant that there were still several thousand runners yet to finish the course.
Mr. Davis added that a “controlled explosion” also took place on Boylston Street.
People were also cleared from an area around the Copley Plaza Hotel after a package was found on a footbridge nearby.
More than 23,000 runners started the race and 17,600 had already crossed the finish line. Nearly 4,500 other runners did not finish and were presumably diverted from the course.
Will Ritter, the press secretary for Gabriel Gomez, a Republican candidate for Senate, was trying to arrange a party for Mr. Gomez, who was running the marathon. He said the explosions sounded like the end of a fireworks display, “the concussions you send off, it sounded like that.”
People started screaming, “Bomb! Run!” People ran east while the police ran west, Mr. Ritter said, adding that he saw injured people being wheeled away. Many runners never made it to the finish line. “These people are at the edge of their physical ability, wandering around sweaty and wondering where to go.”
Authorities in large cities are typically on the highest level of alert for events like a marathon, said Anthony Roman, a security expert.
“It is quite the counterterrorism effort,” said Mr. Roman, who runs Roman & Associates, a New York firm.