The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • A5

The Boston Globe Metro A5 TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013 TERROR AT THE MARATHON DAVID L. RYANGLOBE STAFF Just seconds after the first explosion rocked the area near the Boston Marathon finish line at about 2:50 p.m., there was a second blast a few blocks away on Boylston Street. 3 killed in Marathon blasts r- fS a4? Si BOMBING Continued from Page Al ing at least one person at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said sources familiar with the situation. Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said no one was in custody.

"Any event with multiple explosive devices, as this appears to be, is clearly an act of terror, and will be approached as an act of terror," a White House official said. "We don't yet know who carried out this attack, and a thorough investigation will have to determine whether it was planned and carried out by a terrorist group, foreign or domestic." The person questioned in the hospital was a Saudi national, who was reportedly tackled and held by a bystander after he was seen running from near the scene of the explosion, said a law enforcement source who spoke with someone involved in the FBI's investigation. The Saudi man, believed to be a university student in Boston, is cooperating with the FBI and told agents that he was not involved in the explosions, and that he ran only because he was frightened. Investigators did not characterize the man as a suspect. No one had been arrested or charged by late Monday night.

Hospital officials said late last night that tests showed no radiation or biological agents on the victims. Although many people were wounded by flying shrapnel, it did not appear the bombs had been packed with nails or other fragments to increase the injuries. Twitter and the Internet overflowed with rumors in the aftermath of the blast, some of which were later debunked. Law enforcement and city offi-cials disputed published reports that investigators had discovered one or more bombs that had failed to explode. Law enforcement officials also descended late Monday on a high-rise apartment building in Revere and conducted a search related to the investiga-tion, said an official with knowledge of the search.

FBI and Homeland Security agents were seen entering the Water's Edge apartment complex at 364 Ocean The several police vehicles gathered outside left the scene before midnight. The Revere Fire Department was called in to assist State with the rest of the spectators. He was taken to a hospital for treatment. The Patriots Day holiday is steeped in Boston sports tradition, when the Red Sox play a rare morning game at Fenway Park, and the best runners on the planet race from Hopkinton to Copley Square, on a 26.2-mile course lined by millions of cheering, celebrating fans. As part of the prerace security stepped up since the 911 terrorists attacks, Boston police had swept the streets for explosives, said State Police.

Relatives of those killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting massacre were guests at the finish line tent, near where the bombing occurred; a theme of this year's marathon was "26 Miles for 26 Victims," referring to those killed in the Newtown, shooting. Hours after the blasts, on the outer edge of the Boston Common, across from the Public Garden, Royal Courtain was with his wife, Cindy, as heavily armed police and SWAT officers with automatic weapons entered the Common. Courtain was about 100 yards from the finish line when the explosions occurred. Cindy had just finished her first Boston Marathon. "I crossed the finish line and saw the bodies," he said.

"People were on the course rolling around, probably from the noise. I saw injuries." He paused and covered his face. "Some missing legs." After the worst 30 minutes of his life, Courtain got a call from his wife saying she was unhurt. The Boston Athletic Association called Monday "a sad day for the city of Boston, for the running community, and for all those who were here to enjoy the 117th running of the Boston Marathon." "What was intended to be a day of joy and celebration quickly became a day in which running a marathon was of little importance," the BAA said. Travis Andersen, Billy Baker, Brian Ballou, Laura Crimaldi, Kevin Cullen, Carolyn Y.Johnson, KayLazar, Shelley Murphy, Maria Cramer, Michael Rezendes, Maria Sacchetti, and Lisa Wangsness of the Globe staff and Globe correspondents Derek J.

Anderson and Todd Feathers contributed. Mark Arsenault can be reached at orsenaultglobe.com. JOHN LANDINGGLOBE STAFF Race volunteer Katherine Swierk (left) was reunited with her aunt Terry Days (center) and friend Jocelyn Cacio. just below the knee. "You could see stuff just flying," she said.

"I looked across the street and I could see a man on the sidewalk. There was blood and part of his leg was just gone." Ron M. Walls, chief of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women's, said the hospital had received 26 of the wounded. The youngest was 3 years old and was sent to Children's Hospital; the oldest was 62. The injuries included eardrum damage, serious limb and head injuries, but no amputations, he said.

Some victims had burns, including one with very significant burns. "I haven't seen anything like this anywhere before," he said. "These types of events are things we drill for and practice for and get ready for, but you don't expect you're going to see it." A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was among those who sustained less than life-threatening injuries from the explosion, said a federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the information. The officer was off duty and was watching the race Police in the search of an apartment unit of a "person of interest," according to a statement from the department. A city touched 1 1 years ago by terrorism, when 911 hijackers took off from Logan Airport, was touched again, in a plot to inflict untold casualties at the city's annual Marathon celebration, the one day each spring when the attention of the sporting world is on Boston.

The attack truncated the world's most prestigious road race, which draws runners from across the globe, and will forever mar what is annually the city's most uplifting day: Marathon Monday. "It puts a cloud over the event for everyone," said runner Maureen Tighe of Boston's North End. "The people who finished. The people who didn't. And the spectators.

I don't know if it will ever be the same." Marathon officials and police immediately ended the race after the explosions, turning runners away from Copley Square. Officials told television viewers to stay out of the city and asked runners and spectators to go home or back to their hotels and avoid gathering in crowds. The aftermath of the tragedy is expected to be felt across the city Tuesday. Governor Deval Patrick, who provided updates through the afternoon and evening, said the blast area is expected to be closed Tuesday. He said Boston "will not be business as usual," after the ter-rorist attack and that police presence will be heavy in the city.

MBTA riders can expect random bag searches. The closed-off area spans the length of Boylston between Berkeley Street and Massachusetts Avenue, and on either side of Boylston from Newbury Street to Huntington Avenue, a section nearly a mile long and three blocks across, he said. Investigators faced an overwhelming crime scene, littered with bags dropped by people fleeing the blasts. Police had to treat every backpack and gym bag as a potential deadly threat. Authorities blocked cellphone service to the area to prevent any other device from being detonated by phone, leaving thousands of athletes and spectators unable to call loved ones to make sure they were OK.

Police locked down a 15-block area around the scene of the attack, in the heart of the Back Bay neighborhood. State Police sent units to every hospital in the city and to South Station to provide security and swept the State House for bombs, as a precaution. Eyewitnesses to the blasts reported a sudden shock, followed by unreal scenes of human carnage. "I saw white smoke and at first I thought it might be a firecracker but it was really loud," said Megan Raftery, who was standing near the finish in front of the Mandarin hotel with her two young sons, waiting to cheer on her Marathon-running husband. Seconds later, a second explosion directly across Boylston Street, near the Apple store, shot debris high in the air.

And when Raftery looked down she saw that the explosion had blown a man's leg off,.