SourceURL:file://localhost/Volumes/Server%20HD/0AAA/1%20Tuesday/***Edited/Copy/4.16/4.16_BOSTON_Ap.doc

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.

RunnerTim Davey, of Richmond, Va. 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.

Boston police said two people were killed. Hospitals reported at least 105 injured, at least 15 of them critically.

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 four-hour mark, when the bombs exploded, 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.

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.

“My ears are zinging. Their ears are zinging,” Wall said. “It was so forceful. It knocked us to the ground.”

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.”

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.”