Marathon bomb manhunt puts Boston into lockdown

This is one of America’s biggest cities: yet this week it has at times resembled a war zone and a ghost town. This morning, after a terrifying police chase, the death of an officer and a terror suspect, and at least one armed and dangerous suspect still at large – the city is silent.

There are no buses, no trams, no trains: the airspace is silent, and more than a million residents have been told to “shelter in place.” There are bomb squads, armed officers, armoured vehicles and security forces in full camoflague gear.

A house has been totally surrounded: the latest from the scene shows officers with guns drawn running up the street, reporters there have been told to get down and stay down.

I would never ever imagine that somehow, the children of my brother would be associated with that. Tsarnaev brothers’ relative

A third person, thought to be an associate, is also being sought.

There were reports that officers surrounding the house had asked for a Russian interpreter. Concerns, too, of booby traps, and of other explosive devices elsewhere.

Residents of nearby Cambridge have been warned to expect a controlled explosion. Watertown police chief Edward Deveau said it could take as long as the weekend before the crime scene is brought under control.

Boston mayor Tom Merino declared the city was strong and “will get through this”.

Mass manhunt

The two alleged bombers have been named as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in hospital with numerous gunshot wounds and others consistent with blast injuries, and his brother Dzhokhar, who remains the subject of a mass manhunt, involving nine thousand officers across several states.

They are suspected of carrying out the bombing attack at the Boston Marathon on Tuesday which left three dead and many injured.

In the early hours of the morning, Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick first warned residents across Boston to stay indoors and only answer their doors to police officials in the “ongoing situation”. Dzhokar Tsarnaev, said security officials, was armed and dangerous.

The city’s main university campuses – including MIT, Harvard and now UMass Dartmouth where Dzokhar was a student – have all been closed: there has been a controlled evacuation at UMass Dartmouth.

For this entire week we’ve been in a pretty direct confrontation with evil. John Kerry, US Secretary of State

All public transport was suspended, including taxis and air space was closed, save for police helicopters circling overhead. Amtrak suspended all train services between Boston and New York, one of the country’s busiest commuter lines.

The White House said that President Obama, along with key officials from his administration, was given a security briefing on the ongoing situation inside the situation room this morning and is being kept constantly updated.

Secretary of state John Kerry, who arrived at the White House shortly afterwards, said: “I think it’s fair to say that for this entire week we’ve been in a pretty direct confrontation with evil”.

Fresh images

The FBI released fresh images of the young man they are hunting for, although there is no more information on a possible associate who is also being sought.

Relatives of the two brothers have been speaking to the media: Their father told AP: “My son is a true angel… he is such an intelligent boy.” And he told NBC that “all hell would break loose” if his son was killed.

However their uncle Ruslan Tsarni spoke to reporters a short time ago. In a highly emotional statement, he sent his sincere sympathies for the families of those who were killed: “I would never ever imagine that somehow, the children of my brother would be associated with that.”

He described his nephews as “losers” and said he was ashamed of them – urging them to turn themselves in. He also insisted they had never been in Chechnya, although security sources are being quoted, saying that one of the brothers spent six months abroad last year, flying from New York to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

On the social networking site Instagram came a statement from the Chechen leader Razman Kadyrov. He repeated his condolences for the people of Boston, and said any attempt to link Chechyna with the brothers would be in vain.

“It is neccessary to seek the roots of evil in America”, his statement said.

Overnight violence

The hunt for the two men intensified overnight as explosions and gunshots rang out over Boston.

Police were called to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus after reports of gunshots at around 10.20pm EDT.

An officer, now named as 26 year old Sean Collier from Somerville, Mass, was found with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The suspects are believed to have hijacked a Mercedes and fled to the Watertown district, where there was a shoot-out with police at a petrol station.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, identified by police as the man with the black hat, was critically injured and later died. He arrived at the hospital in cardiac arrest, a doctor told reporters: “There were signs of more than just gunshot wounds.”

Police now think the suspects spent the night in a Honda CRV which was later found abandoned in the city.

Who are the suspects?

The backgrounds of the two suspects remains confused: it’s now thought they were from the former Soviet republic of Kyrgystan, or at the very least had spent time there. Some reports say they came to the United States with family in 2002 or 2003.

Others report they have been in the US for at last two years. Videos and statements which appear to have been posted online by the brothers include some with extremist religious statements, some associated with al-Qaeda.

NBC’s Pete Williams has reported the brothers were “not unfamiliar to the FBI”.

But for local residents, trapped indoors in a major city that is now eerily quiet, this is the message from police: “Please understand we have an armed and dangerous person(s) still at large and police actively pursuing every lead in this active emergency event”.

Robocalls have been rolling out at regular intervals, reminding people to stay indoors: some unlucky folk who didn’t get the message early enough, have been stuck in their offices, they have now been advised to try to get home.

And the latest, from officials speaking in Watertown, focus of the most concentrated activity, is that there are developments still going on, which they cannot reveal at the moment. Until anything changes, the people of Boston have been told – stay indoors.