Medical workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
April 15, 2013 - 3:08 PM
More than 2,000 Canadians were registered to run the Boston Marathon Monday, where two explosions near the finish line left two dead and dozens hurt. Many more were there to watch the race. Here are some of their accounts of what happened:
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"There was glass, smoke and bodies flying all over the place. Taylor and I hopped over (a barricade) and we stood in the middle of the marathon course, lane, and, 30 seconds later, if that, the other explosion happened on the other side of us. There was people laying all over the road and the sidewalk. I've got a very graphic image of a police officer running down the street with a little boy probably three years old in his arms saying 'hang on.'"
Al McBeth of Langley, B.C.
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"My main worry was seeing if my wife was OK. Hotels were being evacuated. I got into (the) elevator and people were crying. Got upstairs and saw Lorraine was OK. She had finished her race and was safe. We all called the rooms of the other runners to check that everyone was safe. The last runner told my wife that she finished 38 seconds after the bombs went off. People were throwing medals at the finishers and told them to evacuate."
Guy Doucet of Ottawa.
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"We heard this big bang and we turned our heads and we saw this big puff of smoke and then like 10 seconds later there was another one and everybody just kind of stopped in their shoes and just kind of looked at each other in panic and (a) look on their face like, 'What was that?' Everybody just kind of turned away from it and started to walk away from it in a faster pace, just because we didn't know what it was. Initially the first thing that went through my head was the Trade Centers, another, you know, terrorist attack."
Corinne Gable of Kelowna, B.C.
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We've been to Parliament Hill on Canada Day and it sounds like those big guns and canons that go off. " Mork said from his hotel room.
"I'm still stunned and in shock."
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"I could see them when they went off... as I looked back towards the finish line there was just this massive boom, followed by a second one shortly later. No one knew what was going on and instantly you started to hear sirens."
Kevin Donnelly of Winnipeg
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"It sounded like a canon. Everyone was sort of saying, 'What was that? That's not normal.' ... We saw at least 25 ambulances roll out with people on stretchers."
Jennifer Mork of Calgary
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"When the first one went off I thought, 'I don't know what it is, maybe a transformer, I don't really know,' but when the second one went off you know something's going on... I called my daughter but the phone wasn't on yet so I called my wife in Toronto and said, 'Get on CNN right away. All hell just broke loose.'"
Paul Cloutier of Toronto
(The Canadian Press, CJOB, CKFR, CHNL)
News from © The Canadian Press, 2013