By Police1 Staff
BOSTON — An 8-year-old boy was one of three people killed in the Boston Marathon bombing Monday morning. Another 137 people were reportedly injured, 17 of them critically.
Doctors were “pulling ball bearings out of people in the emergency room,” a terrorism expert briefed on the investigation told CNN. The same source said the blasts resulted in at least 10 lost limbs.
The Associated Press reported “a terrifying scene of shattered glass, bloodstained pavements and severed limbs.”
Video from the scene show authorities helping injured runners leave the scene and bloody spectators being carried to a medical tent that was being used for runners.
“Somebody’s leg flew by my head. I gave my belt to stop the blood,” spectator John Ross told media.
Reports say an initial loud explosion was heard at about 2:50 p.m. near the intersection of Boylston and Exeter streets. Another explosion was heard several seconds later.
Store fronts were blown out by the blast. Witnesses told media that several victims lost limbs.
After the blasts, President Barack Obama vowed that those responsible will “feel the full weight of justice.”
However, there was been no word on the motive or who may have carried out the attack. Police said they had no suspects in custody.
CNN reported the bombings are being classed as a terrorist attack, but it’s not clear whether the origin was domestic or foreign. A federal law enforcement official told CNN that both bombs were small, and initial tests showed no C-4 or other high-grade explosive material, “suggesting that the packages used in the attack were crude explosive devices.”
Kimberly DelGuzzi of Pittsburgh told USA Today she was waiting Boylston Street for her friend to cross the finish line when she found herself pressed against a building, ducking for cover from the blasts.
“At first, I thought it was fireworks, but then I saw the smoke go up in the air,” she said. “Then, not even a minute later, the second one went off.”
Another runner, Tim Davey, told reporters he and his wife saw the wounded being brought into a medical tent that was originally set up for fatigued runners.
“They just started bringing people in with no limbs,” he said.
“They just kept filling up with more and more casualties,” his wife, Lisa Davey, said. “Most everybody was conscious. They were very dazed.”
“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 warm,” said Alisdair Conn, chief of emergency services at Massachusetts General Hospital.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said two other explosive devices that were found nearby were being dismantled. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the findings publicly, according to reports.
Warning: Graphic images below.
RT @joshcox: Do not go near the finish line at the #BostonMararthon -- 2 explosions in buildings twitter.com/JoshCox/status…
— Runner’s World (@runnersworld) April 15, 2013
Explosion at coply twitter.com/Boston_to_a_T/…
— Boston to a T (@Boston_to_a_T) April 15, 2013
What the fuck just happened?#bostonmarathon twitter.com/theoriginalwak…
— Tyler Wakstein (@theoriginalwak) April 15, 2013