Post date: Apr 16, 2013 9:2:11 AM
Witnesses account their experiences after two blasts struck the Boston Marathon on Monday (April 15).
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES (APRIL 15, 2013) (NECN) - Two explosions ripped through the crowd at the finish line of the BostonMarathon on Monday (April 15), killing three people, maiming others and injuring more than 100 in what a White House official said would be treated as an "act of terror."
The blasts a few seconds apart knocked some runners off their feet and shattered what had been a resplendent spring day with the state ofMassachusetts celebrating Patriots' Day, which commemorates the U.S. war of independence on the third Monday in April.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.
"We were rooting for a friend, yeah, then it was like boom! You know, both of us have been in Afghanistan, you expect that there, you don't expect that here, so I thought great, celebrations, yeah that's awesome! And then everybody was screaming and running towards us so I said dude what is going on, everyone said it's a bomb, and he jumped out of the railing down there," said one witness.
The dead included an 8-year-old boy, the Boston Globe reported, citing two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation.
A 2-year-old was being treated with a head injury at Boston Children's Hospital, the hospital said in a statement.
Investigators found what could be five additional, undetonated explosive devices around the Boston area, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing two unnamed people briefed on the investigation. The evidence had yet to be fully analyzed, the Journal said.
Ambulances, fire trucks and dozens of police vehicles converged at the scene, and spectators could be seen crying and consoling each other.
"There were families all around us with kids yelling and screaming, I mean we were just trying to get away as quick as possible. But still I mean around the tall buildings was scary," said another witness.
Many of the victims were gravely injured and some suffered shrapnel wounds and amputations and will require repeat operations in the coming days, said Peter Fagenholtz, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"There's a lot of small metal debris. Some people have asked already whether they were bb's (pellets) or small parts of bombs. And I don't think we're able to say whether they were small bits of metal that were placed there intentionally or whether they were part of the environment that was part of the blast," Fagenholtz added.
The annual Boston Marathon, held since 1897, attracts an estimated half-million spectators and some 20,000 participants every year.