stay with us for the latest out of the boston bombing. [indiscernible noise] [explosion] [screaming] >> hurry up!

>> we need help! >> we're having an attack. >> this is a fox news alert. we are live in boston. where terrible violence and killing today at the annual marathon race. it started out with such joy and cheer and has turned to utter tragedy. 2 people confirmed dead, about 100 injured. there is a press conference at mass general. let's go to that. >> some are in very critical condition? >> that's correct. there have been 29 patients seen here total. 8 are in critical condition and many of those are very seriously ill. >> what kind of injuries?

>> there's a variety of injuries. probably the most common serious injuries or combined lower extremity injuries, combined meaning bone injuries, lower extremities. >> are you seeing shrapnel type injuries. >> yeah. we are seaing a lot of shrapnel injuries. many involve predominantly the lower extremities but it can affect the entire body. >> doctor, please describe the scene when people were coming in and cases coming in. can you describe that? >> well, the first patient who probably came in was probably the most severe. we had three of the most critically ill patients come in if about the first fifteen minutes. at this point we didn't know if that was the tip of a huge iceberg or not. so, you know, i think actually everybody, we're prepared for that type of situation so the

hospital activated its incident command system and within about five to ten minutes we had everything pretty much up and running. >> what are the ages of the victims? >> i don't have that information precisely. >> did you perform any amputations? >> yes, we've performed several amputations? >> how many? >> i can't tell you the total. >> doctor, can you tell us how much patients you were personally treated? have they communicate the with you? can they speak. >> a number of patients have talked. most of it we kept it business only, to be honest. in terms of what effect their clinical condition precisely. so you probably know more than i do about what happened at the scene at this point. you had another question, i'm sorry. >> how many you have been able to treat. >> well, the hospital has treated 29. i have operated on six so far today. >> five patients were

unidentified earlier. have you identified all the patients? >> i don't know if we have identified everyone. some of the patients that came in not identified have now been identified. >> how many remain in the hospital? >> i don't know. >> there have been a lot of questions about family members trying to reach their loved once. any difficulty they may be having. have you had any indication from the patients you have seen that they have been able to reach their family members or find them at mass general at least? >> some we have, some we haven't. some were initially unidentified and took a couple hours. some of the initial patients i treated it took a few hours to find family. i don't know if the 29 total or particularly the 11 -- i'm sorry, 8 in critical condition, if we've been able to reach everybody. >> were these runners or spectators? >> again, i'm not sure. i have not taken care of any runners. but of the 29 people there may have been. >> was there anything unusual or anything in particular? >> no. it's a lot of small metal

debris. some people have asked already about whether they were b bs or parts of bombs. i don't know if we can say. >> do you think the people in critical condition the this point, is it going okay for them or -- >> well, they aren't looking okay because that's not what critical condition means. so it's really too early to say how everybody is going 20 do. >> how long there it take you, how long will the process with the 8 critical? are we talking about hours or -- >> a number of patients will require repeat operations tomorrow and serial operations over the next couple days. as i mentioned a lot of the injuries are combined. they are combined bony and soft tissue and vascular injuries and they have to be approached oftentimes in a step-wise fashion. >> how about shattered ear drums? were they in very close to the explosion. >> we have seen at least one

which is not uncommon with blast injury. one of the things on the to-do list tonight for me and the residents is to go right back around. it can be hard sometimes, particularly if people are being rushed to the operating room to get a good exam and repeat all the exams because that's obviously something you don't want to miss. >> how about ages, hometowns? >> no, i'm sorry i can't actually. i just don't have that information. hospital may be able to give it at a later date. >> can you talk about the amputees again? how many? >> i can't tell you precisely right now. i mean, several. >> all legs or. >> 29 still at the hospital now? >> i don't know that. >> can you give us the age range? >> there were no pediatric patients, and we define that as somebody under 18. so that's actually all i can tell you. the oldest patient i took care of personally is 71. i think that's the oldest patient. >> what was the most horrific or the most difficult for you? i mean, you are a surgeon but still -- >> it's just depressing, you

know. we take care of accidents all the time and it's just depressing when it's intentional. >> have you ever seen anything like this? >> you know, the injuries are not worldly, but, no, i can't say i have seen this volume of patients come with this quickly with this type of injuries. >> it appears that these devices may have been ied-like or crude in nature but you say the injury is not otherworldly. what do you mean? >> well, a traumatic amputation, it's a gruesome injury, but it's something that we do see from time to time in the scoring of daily life, even outside of this type of event. but -- >> it's tough on you, i know you are trained for it, but did you think much about really what was happening or does it kick in automatically? this is work. when it happens we just go to work. >> you talked about injuries on a broad scale but you have 8 in

critical condition. can you elaborate on their injuries? >> i'm hesitate to give you a run down on each of the 8 one by one by one. again, the dominant injury has combined complex lower extremity injuries involving blood vessels, bone and soft tissue. >> do any of the play he's have combat experience? >> one of my partners actually has been deployed in iraq and afghanistan, and i think has probably the most personal experience with these types of injuries. he's been here most of the night. but i haven't talked to him directly about how does this compare to what you have seen in the field. >> what about some of the patients' mental -- you said you were keeping it business for the most part, haven't said a lot. but did any of them say anything that gave you a sense of what this experience is like for them? >> no, no. i mean, people, they want help in this kind of situation. my experience today is not

unlike, i guess, other similar circumstances. i mean, people are -- they are pretty brave. it's a terrible thing and most patients' attitude is do what you have to do and try to make me better. some conscious, some unconscious. >> can you describe, if you look over here a little bit, describe about the scene in the e. r. when it first happened? >> we just got a series of patients on stretchers. actually none of them with -- with the first wave, even, were very seriously injured. none of the first few had breathing tubes in so they were able to talk, even if they were in and out a little bit. when it kicked off the most severe injuries were really these lower extremity injuries. so we had, i think, three in about the first five or ten minutes.

you know, that's when it became clear to us that, you know, it was going to be a busy day. >> had you seen anything like this before? >> again, like i said, the injuries individually are not completely outside. but i have never seen this volume come this quickly. >> now there's 8. what changed? >> i'm not sure how it was classified or when. i think certainly there's some patients who may not have been classified correctly when they hit the door or their status could have changed. >> you were all trained by israeli disastrous first responders. how does that help today in this is situation. >> i was not trained by israeli disaster first responders. >> given the horror you have seen, and the governor said he's seen incredible signs of hope and help across this region, and we've heard reports of people saying that even runners have

called the 4079, offered to donate blood as soon as they could and that's been coordinated. have you seen any of those bright signs? >> what i can say within the hospital certainly everybody arose to the occasion and we had people who were out of town who flew back in here and somehow made it back in within hours from nursing staff to ancillary staff to operating room staff to specialists in really all the different disciplines. we've had, you know, as much or more man power or people power than we could use. i can't speak to the larger scenario, although i was asked by the hospital to mention to anyone who is willing to donate blood specifically that it's appreciated. that right now we are okay. if they cannot forget that sentiment over the coming days to weeks, we are going to use a lot of blood with this incident, and it will be need to be replenished. >> were patients treated for --

>> no. to my knowledge they have not been, and they were not quarantined in the emergency compartment. >> earlier we her the hospital, all nonelect i have surgeries were being put on hold because of the number of patients come in. what's the status on where things are now? >> i actually -- i can't tell you that. i would be surprised if all nonelect i have surgeries. i can tell that for our generalsand emergency service, we did cancel our scheduled cases for tomorrow and we are going to have to sort them out over the next couple days. >> did you say that all victims have been identified, correct? >> no, i didn't. i don't have that information, actually. >> okay. do you know if all have reached their family members? >> again, i don't know. >> can we expect further information tonight? will we get further updates? >> tomorrow probably. >> tomorrow. i'm looking at our public affairs office and it looks like the next press conference will be tomorrow. >> we don't have anything

scheduled yet. we will pick it up in the morning and let you know. >> do you know if everybody has been identified and connected with their families? >> i don't know that yet. we are working on that. >> doctor, how is it for your -- how much of a trying night is it for you and your colleagues? >> it's been a busy day. >> how many hours of surgery did you do? approximately? >> pardon me. >> if you added up the hours of surgery, you did six surgeries, right? how many hours? >> well, i started doing surgery at 8:00 a.m., and i pretty much stopped to come to talk to you ask actually i am going to have to go back. >> my name is fagenholz and first name is peter. >> can you just identify how we should identify you? >> i'm a trauma surgeon. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> as you listen to the trauma

surgeon at mass general, he tells the most graphic details of the horrible violence here today. i'm sure everybody feels awful. just remember, while this work is being done to save these lives, the fbi and everybody else is going out to find the killer or killers of these people. it is a very distressing situation. i'm here with my colleague, bill hemmer. bill, you spoke to some people tonight? >> yeah, good evening to you. really horrific to hear what the doctors are experiencing here in boston, massachusetts tonight. i saw what was really telling throughout the evening. not just listening to that doctor but also the press conference from the authorities about an hour ago. how urgent it is for them to find any clues or any evidence they can. you walk down the street right here tonight, you 307 your head into a restaurant or bar, and all this coverage is on local coverage here in boston. every screen has the one graphic that is similar to the next one. that's an 877 number at the bottom of the monitor for anyone who has any information or if they saw anything to contact

authorities here. it is all out here in boston. only seven hours and some twenty-five minutes into it. what struck me, i arrived from new york around 7:00 tonight and i talked to one gentleman who was telling me he was a quarter mile from the finish line, and yet even at a quart mile from the finish line, there were so many thousands of boss stoneiance, and people who come from all over the country -- >> all over the world. >> all over the world and they are waiting at the finish line for one thing. they want to see their friend, their loved one, their 34078, their dad, their son, and they have gathered at the finish line by the thousands for that moment. and he could not hear what you just heard from only a quarter mile of a way because the cheers of the audience were so huge and so loud. yet he could not hear that. if you listen to that moment, greta, in realtime, that initial explosion that followed a few seconds later by the second explosion, yeah, the explosion

is one thing, but the shrieks by the people on the tape are stung. >> the killer needs to know that with that bomb that he or she or a grew of people left a lot of clues. they left fingerprints as to who they are. every time you create a bomb you leave finger prints left behind. so whatever did that will get caught, it's just a matter of time. but as we listen tonight from the trauma surgeon talk about the lower extremity injuries and the detect and destruction, you can't help but want to go out and join the search for the killer. >> two things just from a medical standpoint when you listen to the doctors describe the injuries to the feet, the ankles, the legs, it seemed like many of the injuries happened in the lower part of the body. and the other item that he mentioned, the shrapnel. was he more specific, that doctor, in describing what that shrapnel was? because at one point tonight we were told it was possibly ball

bearings but that has not been confirmed. >> the thing that struck me also, he talked about the volume, he had never seen such a volume. trauma surgeons have seen a lot of awful things but they haven't seen them come rolling in one after another and when the bodies are going to stop coming in on the stretchers. >> boston, massachusetts is a town known for educational facilities and also a town known for medical facilities and there are many right here in the central part of boston. that was just one area we heard from. i know a medical center is treating at least 11 patients there, and one is a 15-year-old boy. there are young victims involved in all of this. >> and there were thousands and thousands of people here today for this big day. i mean, there's unbelievable how many people were here and the callous of the people wanting to kill and hurt people. >> 27,000 runners participated in the boston marathon. this is really the crown jewel of all marathons. this is the one that has the

more strict qualification rules in order for you to even enter and apply and be accepted. but you have 27,000 people who start 26.2 miles west of boston and they run toward the center of boston here in the back bay where we are. this is their goal and this is their objective. and for 27,000 people, they put all their personal belongings in a yellow bag, a yellow plastic bag -- >> they are still sitting there on the street. >> you go around the corner on two blocks down, you will see between 2,000 and 6,000 of those yellow bags. it could be a sweat pants, it could be a change of clothes, your wallet, your keys, car keys, cell phone. all of that has not been claimed tonight by those people. >> we put up a picture and we went down and were struck by the number of yellow bags because people scattered with the bomb and they weren't able to reclaim their things. >> and this will be something that will be taken care of not just tomorrow but for the coming days. the national guard is here in force and they will guard that

material for the night tonight. >> bill, thank you. also joining us tonight is the carty family. robin was one of the runners in today's race and her family has waited to see her, to see her cross the finish line and family joins us from our boston studio. good evening to all of you. you know, i wish i had the right words to say what a horrifying day for all of you. robin, you were running. tell me where were you when the explosions happened? >> i just finished across the finish line and i immediately saw my children off to the left of me. i stopped and smiled at them and they took my picture and as i was walking through to collect my medal and warming blanket, i started heading over toward the buss to collect my yellow bag. right then i her the first explosion go off and then a few seconds later i heard the other explosion go off.

>> hayden, tell me what you saw. >> my sister and i, we were stand being there and calling out for our mom. we just heard a loud explosion and i said did we just hear a bomb go off and she said i don't think so he felt we both turned our head and turned in the general direction and we saw another pot of smoke rise up in the air. i guess we kind of confirmed something wrong was going on. there were thoughts it could have been confetti or fireworks, but that wasn't the first thought out of our minds. >> for all of us watching and meeting your family for the first time, it breaks our heart. we want this to be a great day to celebrate your mother running the marathon, and it turned so ghastly for so many americans. your thoughts about this marathon tonight? >> it's a tragedy. it's very sad because the runners work so hard to qualify for the marathon. everybody is really excited about it. it's just the tragedy that somebody could ruin it like

that. >> robin, as you crossed the finish line, i imagine you are pretty excited. can't imagine what it would be like, the thrill of completing a marathon, running a marathon, and then hearing that noise and you were just robbed of it. >> absolutely. it's very, very sad and also the fact that a lot of runners who worked so hard for it were actually diverted and didn't get to finish. so this milestone in their life, something that they worked so hard for, they were unable to complete it. and my heart just is absolutely broken for the families who lost their loved ones and people who were injured. it's horrifying. people or someone could take this wonderful occasion and just ruin it. >> to think of what so many families are going through. your family tonight went through a horrible tragedy, horrible violence, something no children

should witness, i should say to your children, but you guys have done incredible as awful as it was. you are real lucky your mother is sitting next to you because this has been a horrible evening. but the fbi and the police, they will get the killer because that killer left lots of -- lots of finger prints on that bomb. and everyone is determined to get them. i'm just curious, hayden, any thoughts about the marathon? >> the marathon in particular in general? >> yeah, i mean has it been ruined? can you ever sort of, you know, look back at this and i guess marathons are now pretty much ruined for you, for your family? >> i hope not. my mom was saying that she was hoping to qualify for another boston marathon, and we are thankful that she was shooting for thatebecause if she had been less than a minute behind, she

could have been caught like that gentleman that flew off whether the bomb erupted. i don't want this ruin running for my mom or boston for me. it was an amazing experience and it shatters our world. we are we are here right now and talking about what happened. >> thank you all for joining me very much. thank you. >> thank you. >> we will go right to the washington post. he joins us. he's a runner today. he's on the phone. vernon, where were you when the first bomb went off? >> i was about three blocks away near the prudential center. as soon as i heard the sounds, i knew immediately they were bombs and i think it took me about a minute to send my editor, marty, a note to say two bombs just went off at the boston marathon. >> how did you know it was a bomb? a lot of people thought it might be something else.

what was it that -- was it in your gut almost? >> no. i heard a couple people say, oh, they thought it might have been a canon. it didn't sound like one of those ceremonial canons. these explosions were loud, they were kind of jagged sounding and in sort of one-two succession. my first thought was those are bombs. and then, you know, within seconds a symphony of sirens began which sort of confirmed it in my mind. and there were so many police descending so quickly that, you know, i knew within minutes what had happened. you know, i used to cover national security so, you know, the fact that there are these horrific bombings aimed as mass casualties is not something foreign to me, like beyond my imaginations, and that's precisely what this is. this was an attack planned to

produce mass casualties. there are so many people along that finish line, that whoever planted these bombs wanted to kill and mame lots of people. >> there are certainly a lot of unanswered questions tonight. definitely it was terrorism. we don't know if it was home-grown or foreign but it was terrorism and intended to hurt a lot of people and, indeed it did. i imagine when the bombs went off everybody just running? is that it? the nonrunners, spectators took off running? >> it was kind of interesting where i was. the atmosphere after the boston marathon is so full. it's joyous, the weather was beautiful today. people were just having fun, laughing, meeting up with family members. and when these two explosions went off, it was almost like a hush fell across the city. you know, everybody just stopped and said what was that? yeah, the people who were on

boylston street at the time, i started seeing them sort of not streaming, but coming one at a time, obviously shattered, crying. but i was far enough away so that i didn't actually see the sort of chaos at the scene. but again, it affected everybody across probably a ten or twelve-block swath of the back bay. you know, everyone seemed to sense that something horrific had just happened. >> you know, i was listening to one of my colleagues talk about the fact that there was about a 12 or 14-second delay between the two bombs and some people think that was deliberate so the first bomb would go off and everybody would run and run in the direction presumably toward the second bomb so there would be even greater casualties. the cruelty of how it appears. i mean it's an early investigation, but vernon, when you look at the video and you see how the people, how they were terrified and some killed,

it's really stunning what this has done. you know, i can't imagine what it was like. you got out of here, though. >> yeah. i was lucky. i crossed the finish line maybe i think 40 minutes before the becoming. but watching that video i think will send, you know, a shiver down any runner's spine. it could have been you. we had all crossed that finish line. to see that poor man literally like blown off his feet was, you know, really sad. it's very hard to reconcile sort of joyous quality of a marathon and the mass quality of the boston marathon when you have literally got 26 miles of a course lined with after i had spectators the whole way, to reconcile that with what happened at the end. it's very kind of jarring. you know, in retrospect, i mean marathons are something we all love and work hard at and so

forth. but, you know, the marathon, you know, itself seems rather insignificant now given the horrific nature of this attack. although i should add -- >> when you think about it -- you think about people training -- some people have trained so long for this. and for some people it's the first time they have done it. their families are excited. they are thrilled. and how could running in a marathon ever be such a deadly experience? i mean, no one who even contemplate the cruelty of this one, vernon. i mean, if you know anybody who runs and you see people cheering, it's really hard to understand the level of cruelty to do this. >> it really is. but again, you know, it's an event with, you know, 27,000, 30,000 runners, probably 100,000 spectators. and down at the finish line tens of thousands of family members

waiting to greet their family member joyously. so again, whoever did this was really aiming for a horrific mass casualty event. and what was interesting to me, not even beyond the fact that the two bombs were timed probably to produce maximum casualties, but there were additional bombs found. we heard a third explosion which we ultimately learned was the police detonating a bomb and a fourth bomb found. there were obviously some sophisticated planning behind this attack. >> vernon, thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure. thanks for having me. >> of course, as soon as the bomb went off, there were calls made to the police. let's listen to one of the police dispatch take place. >> stay off the air. stay off the air. just make your way over there. all units stay off the air and make your way over there. >> copy that. >> i only want to hear from the

984. i only want to hear. >> stay clear. the ambulance will come, okay? >> we will need more ambulances. >> we have multiple people down here, okay? i don't know what the cause is. stand by. >> have the bomb squad call me immediately, 5449, immediately. bomb squad monitoring. >> we have another backpack at need to set up a perimeter and get people away from it. >> we will do a sweep and make sure no other devices are on the streets. we will then get people out of the restaurants and bars. >> incredible to see this in downtown boston. my colleague, rick, joins us. rick, you have covered war and

i'm sure you all watched him when he was covering the war in the march up to baghdad in the eye remark war. these bombings are unbelievable. your thoughts tonight in boston? >> we heard from an army veteran who served in afghanistan who ran in the race and soon after he crossed the finish line the bombs went off and he said it sounded to him like an ied, which unfortunately our service members are all too familiar with. these are the type of blasts that people in iraq and pakistan and israel are also familiar with. the severity of it and frequency, people in america are not accustomed to. it's a difficult thing for anybody to deal with. we know boston is on a heightened state of alert. we've seen a tremendous influx of police officers and s.w.a.t. teams and special agents. we know now that not only is the area around the blast site still secured, including with help from the national guard, but

there has been somewhat of a lessening in this area just outside of that perimeter. the ambulances staged behind us because the investigation was ongoing and they were concerned about possible follow-up blasts, they have now searched apparently every vehicle in the twelve-block radius and they have given the all-clear so the ambulances could take off. the emergency service members who have been here for hours getting a much-needed break. but the boston police remain on heightened alert. the governor has asked the people of boston to remain on heightened alert and be aware there will be much greater security here in boston, random backpack checks and that sort of thing and as they continue to work the crime scene. and from personal experience, i know they will exhaustively photograph and document every inch of that area along boylston street where the explosions took place to make sure they collect every possible bit of evidence so they can try to track this to whoever may have set those bombs. >> i don't know how

sophisticated those bombs were, but they were effective. and the other bombs, the ones that were detonated that they found. i don't know how sophisticated they were. obviously one was timed to go off after another one, at least it appears so. but, rick, you have covered these bomb investigations. as i noted earlier in the show, the bombs leave finger prints. whatever the contents are, the design, the engineering. the bomb, they help identify who did if. tell me what you think about that tonight. >> right. well, you are absolutely right. from whatever they can recover from these bombs, and if they did find other unexploded ordinance, that could be a tremendous help to investigators as he will. the ingredients used to make it, the way it was manufactured, the trigger device, all these things are the sign of potentially a particular methodology, perhaps, a particular person. they can phrase perhaps some of the ingredients to whoever may have purchased those ingredients. but it is going to be an exhaust i have and ongoing investigation

and that's what we heard from the governor and other officials tonight at that news conference, reminding people that we are going to get a lot of information, we will hear a lot of things but they aren't going to confirm a lot of that stuff until they can more clearly nail this down. we've heard about how this may have been timed to try to inflict mass casualties or the most amount of casualties. remember this, these explosions took place two hours after the lead runners crossed the finish line. in fact, had it gone off two hours earlier, there would be far more people and there were far more people packed in along the finish line. because it went off several hours after the race began, there were, fortunately, fewer people standing there. but as we've noted, the way these blasts went off, the people who were closest to it suffered horrific injuries and we heard the trauma surgeon talk about how complex they were and how difficult it was for the hospitals to deal with the injuries. the youngest apparently as young as two years old and more than 100 being treated in hospitals tonight, greta.

>> rick, thank you. as we go back over the day, three dead and over 130 injured. the day started out for thousands and thousands of people around the u.s. and around the world who came to the city to run in the annual marathon. something people train for, many of them for years. but here's a timeline of today. [explosion sounds] [screaming] [explosion sound] >> we've just got earn word of not one, but two explosions near the finish line of the boston marathon. as the flag flies over the boston marathon we are seeing the video and listening to the audio. the first real indications we've gotten that something bad has happened. >> athis point in time we determined that there has been a

third incident that has occurred. there was an explosion that occurred at the jfk library. >> they responded within 15 seconds. we saw everybody coming down here. >> some of the patients have already received traumatic am pew takings at the scene. their legs we could see were being blown off. >> to give you the idea of the security posture at the white house that has now been raised to a higher level. there were a series of uniformed secret service officers that i can see from my vantage point here. >> officially from the police department, two are dead and there are more than 20 that are injured, though those numbers are rising now and we are led to believe that those numbers will continue to rise. authorities have confirmed to us that these two explosions did happen as a result of bombs.

in the early going, the first few minutes that we got the information, we thought maybe there was a gas line, maybe there was an awful accident that went from one building to another. this was not an accident. somebody set bombs up on the streets of boston today, clearly with the intent to kill. >> i'm getting new information in right now and this is coming through a person of interest is now in custody. >> cell phone service has been shut down in boston to prevent remote debt nations of explosions. more than 100 people have been treated. explosion teams are headed to boston and also a military style duffel bag that was left at the best israel emergency room, police are getting people there to check that out too. >> i mentioned repeatedly they have a suspect they are watching. the suspect, i have come to learn, was injured and bleeding,

is my understanding, in the aftermath of the explosion. a lot of people were. not a lot of people. in fact only one has been set aside as a person of interest who is under guard, is my understanding, while being treated at a medical facility that is undisclosed. >> we still do not know who did this or why and people shouldn't jump to conclusions before we have all the facts. but make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this and we will find out who did this, we will find out why they did this. any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice. >> so whoever did this, for whatever reason, did so with the intent to cause mass chaos, the intent to kill, with the intent to disrupt work the intent to cause fear, and that is the definition of terrorism. >> we are joined by my colleague in washington. katheryn, there's a part of me,

as i watch even our own video tonight, where i don't even want to talk to and show the injuries because i don't want the killer to know that he or she has had any impact on anybody. i just want to find the killer. and i know you have been working on this investigation. where are they on this? >> well, greta, good evening. the latest information i have comes from a federal source who confirmed that they are investigating a saudi national. this individual is not being described as a suspect at this time. he is between the age of 20 and 21 years old and they are here in the united states on a student visa. what i was told is that the name does not appear, at least after the initial review, on any of the terror watch lists. i was also told that investigators are trying to confirm whether this individual was at school, was enrolled and was taking classes, or there was any other derogatory information associated with this individual. for example, if they have had any contact with law enforcement. this is just one of multiple

leads that is being run down at this hour. but confirmation, they are looking into a saudi national between the ages of 20 and 21 years old who was here on a student visa. i think another key development is that there is going to be a briefing on capitol hill tomorrow by the nctc. that's the national terrorism center set up after 9/11 to assess and monitor the threats against the united states. we anticipate that will happen fairly early tomorrow morning here in washington, first with the house intelligence committee and after that the senate intelligence committee. as you know, late today the chairman of that committee, senator dianne feinstein, she believed boston was an act of terrorism. the third development comes from the head of the homeland security committee, republican congressman mike mccall, who has been briefed on the investigation. he told fox earlier today he had an initial reporting there was

shrapnel, ball barges, incorporated into the devices. that's more evidence they were designed to cause mass casualties in boston today, greta. >> the saudi national that they were their attention on, you cut out on me a little bit in the beginning, is this the person who is burned in the hospital or is this somebody different? >> this was simply described to me as somebody of interest, not a suspect, and somebody who they were trying to run down the details of their student visa, which did appear to be legitimate, greta. >> as far as our reporting tonight, we have no idea where this person that they are interested in, we have no idea whether he is still on the streets someplace or something has happened to him, is that right? >> this is someone who we believe is being questioned this evening. this is not someone who they have launched a manhunt for. but i want to put it in context, it is one of multiple leads that's being run down and they

have many this evening that they are looking at, greta. >> i take it the investigation has gone to the part that -- i mean the very sophisticated part that they are taking every little item of evidence from within the perimeter of the crime scene, trying to see if there's anything that identifies the bomb and how that was put together and where the parts of the components are? i take it that's being done? >> what we were told earlier today is that -- first of all, the fbi is the lead in this investigation through what's called the jttf, which is the joint terrorism task force. what we were told is they had fbi assets on the ground, and that route of the boston marathon has any been turned into a crime scene. what they are doing, they are trying to gather evidence, residue from the explosives to identify the explosives. the material they find they can compare to the video. understand the type of explosives, how it performs during debt nation, that will be clear in the videos, as well. once you know the type of explosive, you can typically

trace it back to a likely source of origin. but more specifically, whether there is what they call a bomb maker's signature. everyone who makes these devices simply has their own style of putting the components. so were the dicings assembled by the same individual, what kind of debtnator did they use, for example, a cell phone debtnator, and the shrapnel. the initial report we had that the homeland security committee is that it was ball bearings. these are designed to cause maximum flesh injury to people. it's the kind of thing that we would associate with crude improvised explosive devices commonly season overseas, but there's been no determination on whether this is a domestic actor whether it has some kind of international connection. a final point, if i can, and maybe more fully explain to your viewers this idea of a

simultaneous attack with a slight delay in between the the explosionings. the reporting we have there was the initial explosion and about 15, 20 seconds later there was a second device that we were told appeared to be the stronger device. it's pretty standard, i'm afraid to say, in these situations to have the initial debt nation, and that is designed to drive the crowd toward the larger device with the idea that that can inflict the maximum casualties. so the time here today is important, as well as the location of any other device that is found, greta. >> this is about a 26-mile crime scene. this is a humongous crime scene. anybody listening, if you were here today, because people had their cell phones going, taking picture and video, and you never know. go back and review video on cell

phones if you were here today to see if there is anything peculiar because whoever did this will be caught on either surveillance cameras or somebody's cameras. there are so many cameras around here. katheryn, thank you. >> thank you, greta. >> neal joins us by phone. he was running today. kneel, where were you when the explosion happened and tell me what you saw. >> hi, greta. thanks for having me on tonight, appreciate it. obviously first my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved today. we are a close running family. there were 27,000 people running today. those of us who are crazy enough to run these distance events, not all 27,000, we know, but certainly we all get to know each other over a period of time. we do know some folks that were hurt and we pray for them this evening. with that said, yeah, i was

finishing the race. i had finished. within the shoot area where you get your drinks and some nutrition post race. i had just gotten offer the phone with my daughter, who i'm here with my family. they travel around with me for these events. and we were talking and she had mentioned she was going back to the lobby of the fairmont hotel which is here in copley, as well. i had turned around to get one of these blankets they put on you to keep you warm, and i was about 100 yards away from the explosion when the first one went off. didn't just see it, but felt it. that's the only way i can put it. i know a lot of people have said the same thing that you have had on this evening so i echo that i shall comment. and people said it was 15, 20 seconds apart but i think it was more like five seconds when the second one happened to have gone off. >> what did it feel? could you actually feel like the

ground move beneath you? could you feel the force of the explosion from where you were? >> a great question because i don't have any kind of background in explosives and haven't had the opportunity, thank god, to feel one but i could say i felt it in my body more than in the ground. but then again after finishing just 26.2 miles i didn't feel a whole lot in my feet at this point. but i definitely felt it through my body and that's what was most telling that to me, at least my initial instinct was this clearly was not just a fireworks or a celebration, it was something of a more significant nature. >> then as soon as the first one went off, people go running? was it chaos? >> no, i think it was just the opposite. a few of us started walking back toward the explosion because, as i mentioned earlier, it's kind of like a running fraternity. we know a lot of the folks.

since it was so close to the finish, a lot of us were competing with each other throughout the 26.2 miles and we just know each other. our first instinct was to go toward it. there was morph a sense of shock than anything until the police started getting folks to move off the course. of course, you have seen the rest and you are showing it on video currently, the chaos that happened within moments at the actual site. for those of us who were between 100 and 200 yards away, it was more of utter shock. none of us had our cell phones with us. it became chaotic but at the time of the explosion it was more deafening silence. >> you should see the area tonight, neil. we went down to part of the area and looked at there is one area it looks like there are thousands of yellow bags that belonged to the runners because the runners who didn't complete the race or just

completed it were never able to go to the buses to recover their items, their personal items. >> right. >> so they just cordoned them off in a particular area and there's a block of yellow bags. there's a picture of it. they are all over, people's unclaimed items because people couldn't go get their items and people didn't know who had been killed or hit by shrapnel. no one new if there was another bomb that was going to go off. that was the other thing too. you heard one, a second and no reason to believe there wouldn't be a third, fourth or fifth bomb. >> exactly. and i can speak personally, the cell phones weren't working when i finally got to my cell phone and i couldn't reach my family because it was a chaotic time. all those folks who did not finish, so many people have commented already, and i just love the fact they are commenting on the fact that this is a human tragedy in so many ways. there are people who train for this event for so long leading

up to this event and families who support them on the side who unfortunately were part of this, as well. support their family and friends that support the runners over a course of a year really to qualify for these events and to work so hard. and to end in such a tragedy with all the work they put in is just -- it just compounds the human tragedy that we experienced here today. to see all those bags, it just reminds me of all the -- i believe there were still 10,000 people on the course that you had the folks who were injured, but, of course, you had the people who had not finished. 10,000 who worked really hard to be here today. and i know it's so miniscule to consider it's a road race but people devote so much of their life to training, whether through time, family sacrifices,

health, and so to have anything occur around a sporting event is tragic and could have anything like this happen in our country just reminds you how fragile it is and brought back 9/11 and everything else we've gone through as a nation, just resonated with me today. just a surreal day and to be part of history and tragedy, it's just incredible. i am anxiously looking forward to hearing the who and the why, even though it's less relevant to me the why. it's clear that was destruction and death that was a goal. but, however, the who and the motivation behind it and stopping it from ever happening again, especially around the major sporting events where we are just so darn vulnerable. i just can't speak to the tragedy of this any more than that. >> well, i think we all approach this tonight from sort of a different emotional view of it. as he walk the streets, i just

got sort of angry. we look at all the tragedy and think of the loss of lives and people who lost their lives, lost limbs. as i walk down the street i get angry. a bunch of innocent people out there running. what can be more innocent that 26,000 people running down the streets of boston. some people may be annoyed at the traffic or something, but it's just an innocent, beautiful day and all of a sudden this happens. we've heard from the trauma surgeon, he said he's never seen such a volume. it's stunning that this,. of all things we have to go through, that we have to see this happen to a marathon here in boston. niel, thank you for joining us and good luck, sir. >> thank you, greta. appreciate your time. >> dr. michael botten joins us. he has seen his share of gruesome injuries to people. doctor, i listened to the trauma surgeon tonight, this young man saving lives and they are all

over doing particular the nurses, the first responders, even the fellow runners, everyone trying to save lives. tell me about your thoughts about the injuries the trauma surgeon described. talked about complex injuries and that didn't sound good to me. explain them. what did he mean? >> they are complicated, multiple parts of the body that are injured. not only limbs but also internal organs. but boston, there's no city in the world that has better hospitals than boston and places like mass general and brigham and women's hospital. people from all over the world come here for treatment. so they are in good hands. i agree with you, there will be a lot of evidence gathered by the surgeons, not only at autopsies of shrapnel parts that would have come from -- some of them coming from the bomb device, that will be tracked down and they will figure out how the bomb was made, who made

it, and just a major tragedy. >> i hate to sound so callous, but i assume these trauma surgeons are trained to take any shrapnel and save it? >> yeah. >> and not discard it as they drive to save lives and limbs? they are taught 20 save it knowing there are signatures or finger prints on it? >> not usually. they will send them down to pathology to be put in formaldehyde. but in this situation there are police officers at every one of those hospitals sitting there to collect anything that's removed at surgery. so it's the police job to tell the doctors to save it and not just put it in a formaldehyde jar and send it to pathology. and the police will bring it to the crime lab, and the crime lab will figure out what kind of material it is, what kind of metal, did if come from a bomb device, did it come from aware, can you track back where the wire or the component was

purchased? who did it? as you said, there's a treasure-trove that will come from the living as well as the autopsies tomorrow. >> this is a powerful bomb, wasn't it? when you look at all the damage it did and how big it was. people have lost limbs and. >> the video of it, we don't know. the doc said all the injuries, three people died and there's about 100 injuries, we will find out in the weeks ahead how serious the injuries were. but the police probably have already identified where the two bombings were placed, where they went off. they have all kinds of security videos from the area to see who entered and when. whether people saw people coming in.

we still have another live hour here in boston. there is more on this investigation. stay with us for another hour live. we'll be right back.