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| Medical responders run an injured man past the finish line the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. Two explosions shattered the euphoria of the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry off the injured while the stragglers were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts. |
BOSTON (AP)
-- Two bombs exploded in the packed streets near the finish line of the
Boston Marathon on Monday, killing two people and injuring more than 100
in a terrifying scene of shattered glass, bloodstained pavement and
severed limbs, authorities said.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said two other bombs were found near the end of the 26.2-mile course.
President Barack Obama vowed that those responsible will "feel the full weight of justice."
A
White House official speaking on condition of anonymity because the
investigation was still unfolding said the attack was being treated as
an act of terrorism.
Authorities shed no light
on a motive or who may have carried out the attack, and police said
they had no suspects in custody. Authorities in Washington said there
was no immediate claim of responsibility.
"They
just started bringing people in with no limbs," said runner Tim Davey,
of Richmond, Va. He said he and his wife, Lisa, tried to keep their
children's eyes shielded from the gruesome scene inside a medical tent
that had been set up to care for fatigued runners, but "they saw a lot."
"They
just kept filling up with more and more casualties," Lisa Davey said.
"Most everybody was conscious.
They were very dazed."
The
fiery twin blasts took place almost simultaneously and about 100 yards
apart, knocking spectators and at least one runner off their feet,
shattering windows and sending dense plumes of smoke rising over the
street and through the fluttering national flags lining the course.
When
the second bomb went off, the spectators' cheers turned to screams. As
sirens blared, emergency workers and National Guardsmen assigned to the
race for crowd control began climbing over and tearing down temporary
fences to get to the blast site.
A pool of blood formed, and huge shards were missing from window panes as high as three stories.
Boston police said two people were killed. Hospitals reported at least 105 injured, at least 15 of them critically.
Some
23,000 runners took part in the race, one of the world's oldest and
most prestigious marathons. One of Boston's biggest annual events, the
race winds up near Copley Square, not far from the landmark Prudential
Center and the Boston Public Library. It is held on Patriots Day, which
commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution, at Concord
and Lexington in 1775.
Boston Police
Commissioner Edward Davis asked people to stay indoors or go back to
their hotel rooms and avoid crowds as bomb squads methodically checked
parcels and bags left along the race route. He said investigators didn't
know precisely where the bombs were planted or whether they were hidden
in mailboxes or trash cans.
He said authorities had received "no specific intelligence that anything was going to happen" at the race.
The Federal Aviation Administration barred low-flying aircraft from within 3.5 miles of the site.
Obama
was briefed on the explosions by Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco.
Obama also told Mayor Tom Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick that his
administration would provide whatever support was needed, the White
House said.
"We still don't know who did this or why," Obama said, adding, "Make no mistake: We will get to the bottom of this."
A
few miles away from the finish line and around the same time, a fire
broke out at the John F. Kennedy Library. The police commissioner said
it may have been caused by an incendiary device but didn't appear to be
related to the bombings.
The first loud
explosion occurred on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the
photo bridge that marks the finish line. The second explosion could be
heard a few seconds later.
They occurred about
four hours into the race and two hours after the men's winner crossed
the line. By that point, more than 17,000 of the runners had finished
the race, but thousands of others were farther back along the course.
The
four-hour mark is typically a highly crowded time near the finish line -
both because of the slow-but-steady recreational runners likely to be
completing the race and because of all the relatives and friends
clustered around to cheer them on.
Runners in
the medical tent for treatment of dehydration or other race-related ills
were pushed out to make room for victims of the bombing.
A
senior U.S. intelligence official said the two other explosive devices
found nearby were being dismantled.
The official spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the findings
publicly.
A woman who was a few feet from the
second bomb, Brighid Wall, 35, of Duxbury, said that when it exploded,
runners and spectators froze, unsure of what to do. Her husband threw
their children to the ground, lay on top of them and another man lay on
top of them and said, "Don't get up, don't get up."
After
a minute or so without another explosion, Wall said, she and her family
headed to a Starbucks and out the back door through an alley. Around
them, the windows off the bars and restaurants were blown out.
She
said she saw six to eight people bleeding profusely, including one man
who was kneeling, dazed, with blood coming down his head. Another person
was on the ground covered in blood and not moving.
"My ears are zinging. Their ears are zinging," Wall said. "It was so forceful. It knocked us to the ground."
Competitors
and race volunteers were crying as they fled the chaos. Authorities
went onto the course to carry away the injured while race stragglers
were rerouted away from the smoking site.
Roupen
Bastajian, a 35-year-old state trooper from Smithfield, R.I., had just
finished the race when they put the heat blanket wrap on him and he
heard the blasts.
"I started running toward
the blast. And there were people all over the floor," he said. "We
started grabbing tourniquets and started tying legs. A lot of people
amputated. ... At least 25 to 30 people have at least one leg missing,
or an ankle missing, or two legs missing."
At
Massachusetts General Hospital, said Alisdair Conn, chief of emergency
services, said: "This is something I've never seen in my 25 years here
... this amount of carnage in the civilian population. This is what we
expect from war."
The Boston Marathon honored the victims of the Newtown, Conn., shooting with a special mile marker in Monday's race.
Boston
Athletic Association president Joanne Flaminio previously said there
was "special significance" to the fact that the race is 26.2 miles long
and 26 people died at Sandy Hook Elementary school.
