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Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
'Pandemonium': Witness accounts of the Boston Marathon bombing - U.S. News
Serdar Ozturk, who was staying at the Fairmont Hotel in Boston, said that when the bombs went off, it was "one of the craziest scenes" he's ever seen. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC NewsRunners and spectators scattered in panic as two loud explosions went off Monday near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
In interviews with NBC News, witnesses described a scene of "pandemonium" after the blasts, which killed three people and injured more than 100 others. Authorities offered no immediate information on who might be responsible.
Beck Dangler, who was on a fifth-floor patio overlooking the finish line, told NBC News that he could see a plume of smoke "and then the immediate scatter."
"You could smell it — it smelled like a giant firecracker," Dangler told NBC News. "... Then there was immediate pandemonium."
Mark Wolfe, 49, of Corvallis, Ore., used the same word — "pandemonium" — as he told NBC News by cellphone what he saw.
"It's utter pandemonium," said Wolfe, who finished his ninth Boston Marathon earlier in the day. "Everybody's just in disbelief and sadness."
"If it was 30 seconds earlier, we'd be in the hospital right now," said Bob Miller, who passed by the scene with his 16-year-old niece and her boyfriend.
"Some people were very badly hurt," says a runner in the Boston Marathon. Janet Wu of NBC station WHDH of Boston reports.
The three were returning from a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park and had stopped to cheer on the runners at the end of the Marathon, Miller, 36, told NBC News. He estimated that they passed with 50 feet of the scene of the first explosion.
The panicked crowd tried to squeeze through a sidewalk wide enough for only two people, he said, and "everyone started shoving and pushing as hard as they could."
Whitney Hunter, a competitive road runner from La Center, Wash., told NBC News that he was only 300 yards away when the first blast went off.
"About 20 seconds later, the second explosion happened," Hunter said by email. "I saw barriers fly and I knew that it was not right so I stopped. ...
"My wife was right across the street," Hunter said. "She saw people laying in the road."
Alycia Lane of NBC 4 of Los Angeles was at lunch nearby at the Lenox Hotel when the bombs went off.
"The whole room rattled," Lane told NBC News' Kerry Sanders.
About 10 seconds later, the second blast went off.
"The building across the street from the spectator stands — which was a mirrored office building, a tall office building — was shaking," she said.
Listen to the entire interview (.mp3)
The explosions caused effects far beyond the race site.
NBC News reported that the candidates in the special election to replace Secretary of State John Kerry in the U.S. Senate had suspended their campaigns.
"Right now we need to let the trained emergency personnel do their jobs to ensure that there are no other threats, and that we can get a better sense of what happened," Republican Rep. Stephen Lynch said in a statement.
Businessman Gabriel Gomez, who is also seeking the Republican nomination, ran in Monday's race and was uninjured, his campaign said.
And organizers of the London Marathon said they were reviewing their security plans ahead of their race Sunday.
"It is a very sad day for athletics and for our friends and colleagues in marathon running," Nick Bitel, the marathon's chief executive, said in a statement.
Wolfe, the Oregon runner, said he was usually "exhausted but elated" after having finished each of his nine marathons. But after Monday's incident, "nine is enough, he said.
"Pray for those runners."
Jonel Aleccia, Sarah Boxer, Melissa Dahl, Bill Dedman, Luke Russert, Kerry Sanders and Frank Thorp of NBC News contributed to this report.
Related:
NYC, DC increase security in wake of Boston explosions
Running blind: 40 sightless runners competing in Boston Marathon
This story was originally published on Mon Apr 15, 2013 8:57 PM EDT
Monday, April 15, 2013
2 killed as 2 bombs explode at Boston Marathon
BOSTON — Two bombs exploded near the finish of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing two people, injuring 22 others and sending authorities rushing to aid wounded spectators, race organizers and police said.
One runner, a Rhode Island state trooper, said he saw at least two dozen people with very serious injuries, including missing limbs.
About two hours after the winners crossed the line, there was a loud explosion on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the photo bridge that marks the finish line. Another explosion could be heard a few seconds later.
The Boston Marathon said that bombs caused the two explosions and that organizers were working with authorities to determine what happened. The Boston Police Department said two people were killed and 23 others injured.
Competitors and race volunteers were crying as they fled the chaos. Bloody spectators were being carried to the medical tent that had been set up to care for fatigued runners. Authorities went onto the course to carry away the injured while stragglers in the 26.2-mile race were rerouted away from the smoking site.
Roupen Bastajian, a 35-year-old state trooper from Greenville, R.I., had just finished the race when they put the heat blanket wrap on him and he heard the first blast.
"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."
A Boston police officer was wheeled from the course with a leg injury that was bleeding.
"There are a lot of people down," said one man, whose bib No. 17528 identified him as Frank Deruyter of North Carolina. He was not injured, but marathon workers were carrying one woman, who did not appear to be a runner, to the medical area as blood gushed from her leg.
Smoke rose from the blasts, fluttering through the national flags lining the route of the world's oldest and most prestigious marathon. TV helicopter footage showed blood staining the pavement in the popular shopping and tourist area known as the Back Bay.
"There are people who are really, really bloody," said Laura McLean, a runner from Toronto, who was in the medical tent being treated for dehydration when she was pulled out to make room for victims of the explosions. "They were pulling them into the medical tent."
Cherie Falgoust was waiting for her husband, who was running the race.
"I was expecting my husband any minute," she said. "I don't know what this building is ... it just blew. Just a big bomb, a loud boom, and then glass everywhere. Something hit my head. I don't know what it was. I just ducked."
Runners who had not finished the race were diverted straight down Commonwealth Avenue and into a family meeting area, according to an emergency plan that had been in place.
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