Bombing at the Boston Marathon
April 17
Two bombs exploded within seconds of each other near the finish line of the Boston Marathon just off Copley Square on April 15. At least three people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy. Some 180 people were injured.
At least one of the bombs, and possibly both, had been packed inside a pressure cooker that had been placed inside a backpack or duffel bag. According to law enforcement officials, pieces of pressure cookers were recovered from the crime scene. Bomb experts note that explosives sealed inside pressure cookers increase the force with which pieces of shrapnel (metal)–such as ball bearings, BB’s, and nails–will explode outward. Physicians who treated the wounded found large amounts of shrapnel embedded in patient’s tissues. They reported that at least 10 of the victims have lost limbs. The use of pressure cookers is a common way to build bombs that are known as improvised explosive devices (IED’s). A number of pressure-cooker bombs were used in a 2006 Mumbai bombing that killed some 200 people.
The attack caused the first-ever halt to the Boston Marathon, which is sponsored by the Boston Athletic Association. The race in 2013 was the 117th running of the marathon.
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