Breaking:Large explosion at public event in Boston***Mod warning in OP**

Royal Irish

Royal Irish wrote: »

My initial thoughts would be home grown Islamic extremists under the influence of a radical clerics online preaching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDii69YCh_Q

skimpydoo

hmmm wrote: »

The runner tracker is reported to still be working
http://www.baa.org/individual.html

They are now stating on their twitter feed "bostonmarathon There were two bombs that exploded near the finish line in today's Boston Marathon. We are working with law... fb.me/1HdL4nLXX

muletide

Controlled explosion at JFK library - on the scanners just now

Manc-Red

They'll blame it on North Korea all Iraq like.

humbert

Relieved that a friend over doing the marathon has sent word back that he's OK, hopefully others have heard back too.

Pudsy33

rebel girl 15 wrote: »

Another suspicious item found near Berkeley

Very far away

Sittingpretty

I may be a bit naive but the Sky News coverage of blood all over the footpaths is a bit insensitive.

hmmm

wow sky news video shows that the 2nd explosion was well away from the first - perhaps 100/200 yards down the street

Seachmall

Can someone link to the scanner, it was posted a page or two ago but I can't find it now.

mjp

Boston Marathon run tracker says 108 Irish runners took part today.

yeahimhere

yeahimhere wrote: »

A controlled explosion at JFK library

? WHAT

Overheal

tigger123 wrote: »

Does that not kind of defeat the purpose of planting a bomb though? Why would someone plant a bomb that's designed to kill a low number of people?

Thats why I argue trying to do such a thing is silly. I really doubt that was a motive. More likely its just not the deadliest explosive the authorities have seen before, is all.

namloc1980

Fox news are ready to start bombing somewhere.

rebel girl 15

wonderfullife wrote: »

These "unconfirmed reports" of fatalities really annoy me.

FFS, it's the last thing they should be reporting on right now. If there are any deaths, these people have families and it just increases fear and panic amongst those with family members at the race.

Would it be so hard to wait for confirmed reports from an official source after family members have been informed? It keeps the panic levels lower for the public. Wait until they have been informed and for a Police official to make a statement.

Reporting deaths based on unconfirmed reports, and speculating over deaths so quickly serves no purpose.

News agencies have an obligation to report the news, they have no obligation to try beat every other rival news channel to the story.

Its the Boston Police that are confirming 2 dead via twitter

Burgo

Deleted User wrote: »

? WHAT

The police blew up a suspicious device. a controlled detonation.

Pudsy33

Deleted User wrote: »

? WHAT

Controlled, means the police blew up another device safely.

Overheal

muletide wrote: »

Confirmed explosion at JFK library - on the scanners just now

controlled explosion of additional device found on scene afaik

jimmycrackcorm

Just saw the video of the second explosion where a policeman runs away but photographers stay put...

Hazys

Technoprisoner wrote: »

confirmed explosion jfk library just now

Fcuk thats scary, the JFK museum is nowhere near the marathon. That means there could be bombs anywhere in the city. I'm not getting public transport home till way later tonight, hopefully when things have calmed down.

Clandestine

Livestream:
http://live.reuters.com/Event/Boston_Marathon_Explosion

FootShooter

News sources:

http://live.boston.com/Event/Live_blog_Explosion_in_Copley_Square

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/live-updates-explosion-at-boston-marathon/?hp

http://live.reuters.com/Event/Boston_Marathon_Explosion

Scanner:
http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/6254/web

Reddit threads:

http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cemn1/aftermath_of_reported_explosion_at_boston/

http://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/1cem4f/did_anyone_just_hear_a_loud_noise_near_copley/

http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1cen3t/there_was_just_an_explosion_at_the_boston/

http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1cen7i/explosion_at_the_boston_marathon/?sort=new

Search by runner, in case you know anyone who ran in the marathon:
http://raceday.baa.org/individual.html

roryc

Royal Irish wrote: »

My initial thoughts would be home grown Islamic extremists under the influence of a radical clerics online preaching. Al Qaeda will claim responsibility soon enough if it does turn out to be a home grown Islamic extremists. AQ are more an ideology now than a group.

Doubt it was a backpack. More than likely a thin suicide vest and possibly dressed as a runner in the marathon to avoid detection before the attack.

Good point. It just stinks of an amateur job. Sounds like it was a homemade pipe bomb. Think of the damage something like the Oklahoma bomb would have done with so many spectators packed into a small space. As one poster mentioned above, either it wasn't intended to maximise fatalities or the person/people that made it didn't really know how to build a powerful bomb.

As bad as it is, if the death toll is less that 5 or 6 then it's not near as bad as it could have been under the circumstances. A powerful enough bomb in that position could have killed hundreds.

Agree with you on the ideology bit. I get the feeling the perpetrator(s) were American though.

Artful_Badger

Odd how people are so quick to assume its terrorism in a country that has armed nutbags killing people what seems like every weekend with terrorist attacks very rare.

Thats not to say this wasnt the work of some terrorist organisation but its just as likely it was a local with issues.

hmmm

Seachmall wrote: »

Can someone link to the scanner, it was posted a page or two ago but I can't find it now.

http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/6254/web

Technoprisoner

the scanner was saying confirmed explosion at jfk library...not controled

jimmycrackcorm

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Just saw the video of the second explosion where a policeman runs away but photographers stay put...

Well maybe the vultures thought there'd be some dead body parts for them to feed off.

Overheal

Hazys wrote: »

Fcuk thats scary, the JFK museum is nowhere near the marathon. That means there could be bombs anywhere in the city. I'm not getting public transport home till way later tonight, hopefully when things have calmed down.

It was a controlled explosion.

Lets all just slowwww dowwwwn and read with care.

After all, we're still all sitting down. In chairs. On the internet.

rebel girl 15

Security at the London Marathon which was due to be on next weekend is being reviewed now

amacca

Overheal wrote: »

Thats why I argue trying to do such a thing is silly. I really doubt that was a motive. More likely its just not the deadliest explosive the authorities have seen before, is all.

or an "amateur" bomb maker rather than an intentionally engineered "low lethality" pipe bomb (whatever that is) with ball bearings (shrapnel) incorporated

RandomName2

seamus wrote: »

The video clip shows the bomb going off when the timer was at 4:09. Marathons have the biggest clump of finishers around the four-hour mark, but it would take about ten minutes for those runners to get to the start line.

Whoever did this had planned the detonation for the time when there would be maximum spectators and participants around the finish line. No doubt at all that this was malicious.

I was stupidly thinking, initially, that such an attack (which it almost certainly is) was aimed at the marathon runners - but looking at the footage, the time of the attack was likely due to the presence of media, with spectators being the apparent target.

Someone earlier was saying that it is an unconventional target for terrorists, but unfortunately, afaics, it is more than typical (soft densely populated target in urban centre during some sort of event). Of course it's easy to jump to conclusions (like with Breivik, where the bombing was actually just a smoke screen).

I'd personally say it's likely to be along the lines that the US is able to prevent 99% of attacks, but there's always that 1%.