'These runners just finished and they don’t have legs now': Witnesses recount war zone at Boston Marathon as bombs left 26th mile littered with disembodied limbs and 'shoes with flesh still in them' Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2309563/Boston-Explosions-Eyewitnesses-reveal-horror-aftermath-bomb-blasts.html#ixzz2QbreKQyf Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Witnesses are describing how twin bomb blasts turned the 26th mile of the Boston Marathon into a war zone, littering the final stretch of the race with disembodied limbs, wounded runners who lost their legs, and a lone shoe with flesh still in it. 

Surgeons spoke about operating theaters that looked like battlefield hospitals as 140 injured victims poured into the city's hospital's - many with wounds only seen in combat. 

Reports suggest that the small, homemade explosives were packed with ball bearings that tore off feet, ankles, calves and entire legs and they exploded just outside the crowded finish line.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Emergency response: Medical workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston on Monday afternoon. Police and fire services swarmed the scene

Carnage: Video taken by Marc Hagopian shows bystanders helping the wounded and scenes of chaos in the moments after the blast

'These runners just finished and they don’t have legs now,' 35-year-old Roupen Bastajian, a Rhode Island state trooper and former Marine, told the New York Times. 'So many of them. There are so many people without legs. It’s all blood. There’s blood everywhere. You got bones, fragments. It’s disgusting.'

Mr Bastajian, who was also running in the marathon, said if he had not beaten his 2011 pace in the race, he, too, might have been one of the victims. 

Even seasoned firefighters were sickened by what unfolded on a beautiful spring day in Boston.

'In 28 years, this is definitely the worst I've seen,' Boston Fire Department District Chief Ron Harrington told NBC News.

'Bodies and body parts. Blood all over. A little boy lying in the street. A young woman in her twenties. Both dead. It was mayhem. I saw two people with arms hanging loose, and one without a leg. 

'A shoe with flesh still in it.'

At least 17 people are in critical condition and some are not expected to survive the night. Victims lost at least ten limbs in the blast.

'It was chaos - blood and limbs everywhere,' Hagopian told MailOnline. 'There was a man who had lost a leg, another had lost both.'

Three people have died, including eight-year-old Martin Richard, who was waiting for his father near the finish line.

Several news outlets have reported that ball bearings were used in the bombs. The small steel balls are popular among bomb-makers the world over because each one becomes a deadly projectile when launched by the explosive force of a bomb.

Some doctors, though, said they found street debris in the wounds of their patients, not ball bearings.

'Rocks, bits of metal, soda cans, anything that is really close to a blast like that can be fragmented,' Dr. Ron Walls, chair of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, told ABC News.
'Everything we saw was ordinary material that could have been propelled by the device.'

Hotel owner Marc Hagopian told MailOnline how he witness unimaginable carnage 35 yards from the bomb explosion. 

'It was chaos - blood and limbs everywhere. There was a man who had lost a leg, another had lost both,' he said. 

'There were seven, eight, nine people lying on the ground. They appeared to be dead.

'Marathon runners were tearing off their shorts to use as torniquets to help the injured.'

Mark was inside the Charlesmark Hotel, on Boyston Street, when the first bomb went off. As he rushed outside, the second exploded.

'There was blood everywhere, along with severed limbs. It was just awful,' he said. 

The second bomb came about 10 seconds after the first. People were knocked off their feet by the force of it.'

Mark, 50, videotaped the aftermath, showing a man lying apparently unconscious on the pavement covered in blood. 

This runner took off his shirt and used it a tourniquet to help staunch the bleeding from a victim

Pained: Medical workers transport away a blood-covered man minutes after the two explosions

Impact: A runner, knocked to the ground by the blast, lies by police officers running to the scene

Another man tears off his red t-shirt to use as a tourniquet as police officers rush to help.

A voice can be heard asking: “What the f*** happened, a bomb?”

Another man, wearing a David Beckham soccer shirt, is seen running around. 

The area around the hotel was evacuated. Mark and his guests gathered in a restaurant two blocks away waiting for police instructions.

Hagopian’s mother Marcia Scott-Harrison, who was evacuated from nearby Commonwealth Avenue, said: 'Mark is in total shock but at least he wasn’t hit.

'His hotel is just yards from the finish line. A man sitting outside the hotel had his leg blown off. It is awful.

'I heard both explosions, then a dozen cops came running up Commonwealth Avenue. They were shouting for everyone to get off the street.

Video: Footage from witness Marc Hagopian (WARNING: GRAPHIC)

Bloody aftermath of Boston bombings WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

'There were young girls crying, I pulled three into my apartment building. It was chaos. No one knew what was happening.'

Amid the horror, though Bostonians showed the mettle. 

Runners turned around after pounding 26 miles and raced into the disaster zone. 

'Somebody's leg flew by my head,' spectator John Ross told the Boston Herald. 'I gave my belt to stop the blood.'

Videos show runners stripping off their shirts and tying them around the legs of wounded spectators for tourniquets. 

Gestures as small as offering a drink of orange juice and use of a home bathroom were recounted on Twitter in an ongoing online recollection of the fellowship that emerged in the wake of Monday's devastation.

'People are good. We met a woman who let us come into her home and is giving us drinks,' tweeted Ali Hatfield, a Kansas City, Missouri runner who was in town for the race.

As the city reeled from the tragedy that killed at least three and wounded at least 100, Bostonions seemed to steady themselves by reaching out to embrace those hurting even more.

'Two Lutheran pastors walking Commonwealth, Bibles in hand. For those who need comfort, they said,' tweeted Chelsea Conaboy, a Boston Globe blogger.

A Google Docs form was quickly set up to allow Boston residents to open their homes to marathon runners from outside the area who had no place to stay in the aftermath of the tragedy.

'Anyone wanting to get out of the back bay come over plenty of tables and calm here and don't worry you don't have to buy a thing,' tweeted a local restaurant called El Pelon Taqueria. 'open wifi, place to charge cell, or just don't want to be alone, food and drinks,- pay only if you can #bostonhelp.'

Pictures of heroism and humanity flooded Twitter, from police officers carrying injured young children to the residents who left their warm homes to greet runners stranded by the emergency and offer them comfort.

'Local Boston resident giving @AliHatfield and us orange juice and offering a bathroom to use,' tweeted Ramsey Mohsen, a Kansas City, Missouri, Web strategist.

In a tweet hours later, Mohsen revealed how shaken he was by the blast, 'Only now has it hit me. Holding back tears best I can.'

Chaos: The injured are helped at the scene, with hundreds of spectators flee the area

Competitors and race organizers were crying as they fled the chaos. A man was pictured with his lower leg blown off, while children were seen being wheeled away in chairs with burned limbs.

Blood and broken glass was strewn across the sidewalks, while a emergency worker was seen checking the pulses of young women lying on the ground.

A trauma nurse told ABC that the race's medical tent has become a makeshift morgue and that staff are dealing with injuries including severed limbs, shrapnel wounds and children with severe burns.

There were reports that a three-year-old child was injured and taken to hospital, while Adidas, which is a sponsor of the marathon, said it is still trying to figure out if all of its workers are safe.

David Abel, a reporter for the Boston Globe who was standing just feet from the finish line to record runners, recounted the scene of horror he witnessed.

'I saw just a pile of bodies,' he said. 'It was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life... mangled limbs, people not breathing. Within minutes, police, medical staff, marathon staff [arrived] and were just trying to carry people off as quickly as possible.'

Rushed away: Medical staff respond to the scene and transport injured spectators to hospitals

Struggle: A woman is comforted by a man near a triage tent set up for the Boston Marathon

Chaos: Eyewitnesses described seeing scores of people without limbs and bleeding being carried away

First responded: Eyewitnesses described people being carried away soaked in blood and missing limbs

Control: Every single one of Boston's 2,100 police officers has been called to work following the explosions

'THERE WAS A COLLECTIVE SCREAM THAT WENT ON AND ON...'

Jeff Chin, 27, who was a block from the explosion, spoke to People magazine about the horror he witnessed: 

'People started screaming. I saw a guy with his shirt off, and it was wrapped around his hand and it was soaked red with blood...

'What you don't see on TV is how loud it was after the fact. Imagine there were hundreds of people just screaming at the top of their lungs, screaming so loud. It was like a sustained scream, collective scream and it went on and on. It was piercing, just the terror that you could hear... 

'It was a nightmare, the worst thing you can imagine...

'It was like every sense of mine was heightened, I was feeling and seeing and hearing everything. I never want to go through anything like it again, it was terrifying...'

Beck Dangler, who was on a fifth-floor patio overlooking the finish line, told NBC News that when the explosions went off, he saw a plume of smoke 'and then the immediate scatter'.

'You could smell it,' he said. 'It smelled like a giant firecracker... Then there was immediate pandemonium.'

A doctor in a medical tent around 150 yards from one of the explosions told ABC News he immediately ran to the scene.

'We all went running over there and started to bring people into the medical tent,' he said. 'It was not good. Very bad. Like a war zone. 9/11 immediately came to mind.'

NBCSN reported that some marathon runners who crossed finish line continued to run to Mass General Hospital to give blood.

ABC reporter Josh Elliott tweeted that the emergency room at Massachusetts General hospital said they have carried out multiple amputations, with the number of patients as high as 25.

Every one of the 2,100 Boston police officers in the city were ordered to respond to the scene, and Boston police chief Ed Davis said FBI and state police were also sending personnel.

'They're dead': Aftermath of Boston Marathon bombings

Aftermath: An NBC still shows the debris and blood strewn area after the area was cleared on Monday

Aid: Emergency personnel respond to an injured woman after two explosions went off today

Suffering: A man who appears in severe pain is rushed away from the scene for aid

Fears: Young women who were hit in the explosions are rushed away on stretchers

Lucky escape: A man hit by the blast walks away from the scene with shredded pants

Steven Saurbier, who saw the explosion’s aftermath from his window, described the swift police response after he witnessed the scene from his apartment.

'Police swarmed immediately,' he said. 'They removed one or two people after patting them down. There were a lot of injured people... I estimate 20 people were medically transported… I saw a woman being carried by two men and I am almost positive her left leg was blown off at the knee.'

Of the police officers in the city, around 1,000 would have working on the event already, Bratton said, with a concentrated police presence around the finish line and the area behind it.

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis described the moments following the explosions and said the FBI and state police immediately sent resources.

'All of the victims have been moved from the scene we have sent officers to hospitals to be in touch with family members and possible witnesses,' he said.

Suffering: A man is loaded into an ambulance after he was injured by one of two bombs at the finish line

Sadness: An unidentified Boston Marathon runner leaves the course crying near Copley Square

Screams: Medical workers aid an injured woman. Scores are believed to have been hurt, and two killed

Overwhelmed: People comfort each other after the explosions, which killed two people on Monday

Moments after: Smoke billows from near the finish line after the bomb was detonated, inflicting tragedy

Destruction: A view of the finish line shows the debris strewn across the road after the explosions

'Every asset of the commonwealth of Massachusetts and the federal government is either here or coming here,' he added.

CBS reported that Rep. Bill Keating confirmed there were two unexploded devices found - one at a hotel in Copley Square and another at an undisclosed location, possibly beneath bleachers.

In an interview with ABC, former police chief Bill Bratton said that as well as the chaos from the injuries, 'you have the compounding factor of dealing with unidentified packages'.

He said he expected police to be receiving numerous calls from concerned residents, as there were reports that as many as three hotels were being evacuated as a precaution.

ABC News reported that there were at least three reported packages, with one controlled explosion having been carried out.

'You have to investigate them all,' he said. 'That's the reality. [There's a] heightened sense of awareness. [Police] are guaranteed to be getting some calls on public transportation. Every one of these things will be have to be looked at.'

'Blood everywhere': Eyewitnesses on Boston bombings

Concern: Women react as they walk from the area where there was an explosion after the Boston Marathon

Briefing: Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis speaks about the explosions at a press conference

Aftermath: Firefighters take position on Boyltson Street near the finish line after the explosions

There were also 400 Massachusetts National Guardsmen at the marathon to beef up the security.

Police are also asking for anyone with video of the explosions to contact them to help with the probe.

'This is a horrific day in Boston,' Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said in a statement. 'My thoughts and prayers are with those who have been injured.

'Our focus is on making sure that the area around Copley Square is safe and secured. I am asking everyone to stay away from Copley Square and let the first responders do their jobs.'

Obama praised the first responders for acting 'heroically' as he addressed the nation just after 6pm.

'Michelle and I send our deepest thoughts and prayers,' he said. 'We don‘t yet have all the answers but we do know local people have been wounded, some gravely.

'We still do not know who did this or why and people should not jump to conclusions before we have the facts,' he added.

Moment of explosion caught on camera at Boston Marathon

Fonte: Mail Online
Informação: Telenoticias Mundial