manchin/toomey fielding questions on their gun deal. gabby giffords will try to close it out this week but no question is going to be a nail biter. the steal is far from a home run. it would have made more sense if thing had worked out in the beginning. >> it is teleprommer day on "the cycle." we'll be calling common things you hear about taxes. wait. it is tax day. >> yes, it is. i'm s.e. cupp. the deadly catch. join us right here onset. i can't wait. we're swinging for the fences or something here in "the cycle." >> as you heard, the tide is turning. we will learn the details on the senate's gang of 8 plan for immigration reform.

a major change for the party who last summer, the plan included deportation. now, 76% of americans favor an eventual pathway to citizenship if they pay back taxes, fines and pass a background check. that includes 73% of republicans. the gang of eight is still debating the final language of the 100 paid proposal. it is expected to be the most comprehensive plan in three decades. it will be a ten-year time line for imgranlts living in the country illegally to gain access to a green card and 13 years to apply for citizenship while waiting them would receive temporary legal status. full citizenship would depend on bench marks like better border security, a major sticking point among conservatives. marco rubio whose parents are level immigrants was slow to back the plan and now he is the face of it. >> i'm involved in doing it. i think what we have now is terrible for the united states of america. we have a legal immigration system that does not work. it will allow them to ultimately

allow them to earn access to our legal immigration system. they will have to apply. it doesn't award them anything. it puts in place effective enforcement mechanisms, unlike anything we've ever had in the history of this country. there are 92 other senators who have ideas of their own. we will get way to improve this. >> yesterday he hit all five sunday shows and did interviews on telemundo and univision. he has reportedly peached out to rush limbaugh. we have an open seat for you any time, senator rubio. >> come on down. >> back with us to pick up this big week, victoria maria. so also a fellow at the center for politics at the lbj school of public policy. welcome back. >> thank you. >> so you know, one of the objections that a lot of people have to undocumented workers, they feel they are overburdening our social welfare system. one of the things i think they don't understand is that the economic contributions of

imgranlts is far greater than what they take. than their cost on our system. a 2006 study shows hispanic immigrants across north carolina. 61 million and contributed $9 billion to the gross state product. the ten states that experienced the largest percentage in foreign born population spent less on public assistance per capita than the states with the slowest growing foreign-born population. so it is really backward to think these people are draining our economy. when actually, they are adding to it. >> why do immigrants come to the united states? since time immemorial, they come because they want to work, they want an opportunity for better jobs. looking at immigrant. our population in the u.s. is. who will be able to pay for the service that's we as we age come

to have? we're also having less kids so immigrants are crucial for this in terms of demographics and they bring a spirit of entrepreneurship. we see in the technology field, immigrants playing a key role. economically, if we're just looking at number, black and white, we know it is actually in the plus column for immigration to grow. >> that may be true but the cost of immigration should certainly still be explored, especially as bills like the propose bail the gang of eight may be rushed through legislation. last week, three sessions, grassley, sessions and roberts asked more about the cost immigration. the potential cost. not just over the next ten years but the next 75 years themselves want an estimate of entitlements, they want the cost of ferry assistance. all of those numbers. is it possible that as we get to learn more about this proposal

over the next few week, it might fail under the weight of its price tag. >> looking at the cost immigration, both in the short term and the long term, it that the main problem is in how it's been put into place thus far. let's say the holes in the system. the fact there has been no way to verify the employment records of immigrants that are here. that's where you have a big hole. in terms of the border crossing and putting millions and millions of dollars into border enforcement, that's a very real cost. why are people coming over? let's think about the powe factor. if we are able to address the poll factor, then the questions about everify, about border security start to fade into the background. we need to consider those issues of cost. put them in the larger scope of the poll factors. >> what's your personal take on where marco rubio's heart is on this issue and how that will affect the larger perception of

him as a candidate going forward? >> all right. personally, he is in it to win it. for the presidential race. i would not doubt that he already has mock-ups of campaign bumper stickers. but the biggest obstacle that he faces is the fact that he has been shape shifting throughout the years. so remember, just two weeks ago, he said that we needed to slow down the process of the comprehensive immigration reform. we needed to pump the brakes. we're going too fast. calling for hearings. now he is full steam ahead. less than two years ago, he was for an enforcement only policy. so i know when the primary comes around, his opponents will be all too happy to hang a flip-flopper cord around his neck. he has to be very careful. that's not even talking about once you get into the democratic challenger episode. we saw in a recent powe that head to head against hillary clinton, that marco rubio loses his own home state of florida.

he has a the love challenges even though his heart is already in the race. >> do you think his current position reflects his personal opinion here? >> to be honest, i don't know what his personal opinion is because there has been so much schiffing. i do believe that he wants to see something work out for undocumented persons in this country. but i don't necessarily know how he best thinks to go about that. whether it is through a course of legalization, a course of citizenship. he has come to be the face of the gang of eight's proposal but what he feel in his heart of hearts, i am having trouble deciphering. >> as you know, president obama won 71% of the latino vote. you have 32% of latinos saying she would be more open to voting for republican that's the we did pass come prehencive immigration reform. let's play the hypothetical. let's say we do pass the bill. does that make latinos

significantly more likely to vote for republicans? do you think we'll see a big shift in that landscape in 2016? >> i would say it wouldn't make them more likely to vote republican but it would open them up. in 2000 we saw a lot of latinos cross over and vote for george w. bush. and we also saw a much larger number of latinos self-identify as independents. what i do think this would do if the gang of eight comes forward and pushes immigration reform with a good republican stamp on it. latinos would be more open to perhaps swaying back into that independent camp and looking at candidates on a much more case by case basis. in terms of seeing a swing over toward the republican party, i really don't think that would happen. at least for the long term. >> thank you very much. we're going to jump to a developing story. there has been an explosion at the boston marathon. let's to go our affiliate.

>> i think you talk with her, that she was in a restaurant and she heard an explosion, a couple of them. and i think what i heard her say, perhaps you talked to her earlier and have information. she and other patrons went running. i'm trying to figure out. i don't know if you've talked to anybody. if we're getting new information about power? the power situation. have you heard anything about the power, hank? >> whether the power is out or not. that's an interesting idea. but janet woo who was in our truck said she and the crew heard two specific explosions. she said it was unmistakable that they were explosions. and from inside the know. it will be interesting to see when this all clears up, exactly when it happened. she was talking about that the injuries seemed to be the people on the sidewalk. that as a result of the massive presence already, police and firefighters and emergency crews at the finish line of the marathon right now anyway, all

of those crews have been dispatched to cover what happened. we're seeing live video now of the finish line. and you can see as this story unfolds, people trying to figure out where this happened. what is impacted. we know that it is across the street from the boston public library. you're at the library right now. this is definitely the vicinity of where whatever happened has happened. you can imagine the police and firefighters on the scene right now are trying to understand what it is that has just happened at the end of the finish line. this is a place where ordinarily, tens of thousands of runners would be coming across the finish line. you can see the area of those bleachers has cleared out. janet woo who witnessed this or was a witness to this event said right now, no one is talking about what's happening. as you can see, we have live

video now of the, at the finish line from sky 7 which is showing a bizarrely empty finish line. this is a place now adam that where thousands of people would be on an ordinary marathon day. now they're trying to take care of the people who are injured. janet is saying there were people in wheel chairs and people being taken away. >> we have a few feeds that i am seeing that are showing it is a chaotic response. we saw as you were speaking, one emergency responder running. if you look to the right. if our employee in sky 7 can hear us, we should zoom in. it looks like a field of debris. keep going and then up. if our assignment desk can talk

to sky 7, pan up to the right. unless it is confetti or something like that. it appears that we can see what appears to be a lot of debris. now we're getting in touch with sky 7 and just to the right. if they can pan right and zoom in tighter. i'm not sure if these are brochures or pamphlets or confetti or whatever the spectators may have had before they went running. you saw the shot briefly. but it does look like that was where something had happened. you see dozens of emergency responders. probably a couple hundred. when you hear the he said center our newsroom, you can hear the radio traffic going nuts behind her. this is an occasion that we hope is something that was obviously beyond human control. not human caused.

it is way too early to think to have even think about that. some of the thing that went through my mind, again, possibly an underground power source or aboveground power source. we've had issues with manhole explosions. we hope that it is something like that and not something else. we cannot even speculate. we cannot even go there right now but we're human. and this day and age, an event like, this it is one of the first things that goes through our heads. you're at home watching and you're watching along with us. we're getting the information just as quickly as we can. let's get susan on the line. >> i'm at the entrance of the prudential center here at huntington avenue. we just saw a fleet of cruisers coming by. we're being directed not to walk

any further. i have my media credentials. we just see a flood of hundred of people walking away from the finish line. we heard two explosions. i don't live too far from the finish line here and i actually heard two explosions the i didn't know what it was. but we spoke with several witnesses and they said they heard two explosions. and they then rushed away from the finish line. then there was smoke. they didn't see any flames. now there are several people just directed. now we're being directed away from getting any closer to the scene. we can see tear-stained faces out here as people are trying to figure out exactly what that. we did see and talk to some folks who saw some people hurt. so most of us here just heard the explosion, we are quite upset. trying to figure out what went wrong. they're blocking us from moving

any further. we can see several ambulances headed toward the finish line along with police cars. we can hear the sirens here. a lot of runners still have their aluminum, their blankets around them as they are trying to meet up with family and trying to figure out what's going. on that's the latest here from the prudential center. >> susan, stay on the phone if you can. we want to, if you're joining us now, we're following a breaking news report of several injuries. you can see on the tv. this is the finish line of the boston marathon where there have been a report of two explosions. we're not sure how many people were hurt. we do know that the medical tents there that were just set up for the runners that were virtually empty because of the conditions of the day, were flooded with people in the grandstand. police have shut down boyleson street.

if you're still with us, i believe you mentioned, you did hear two explosions. am i right with that? >> i did of i was getting ready for work. i was coming down. i heard two explosions. we live in the city. there is a the lolot of activit. i did not think anything of it. i was getting into my car to head to work and i just saw she's shell shocked standing in the streets now. i live in the south. that mean they have news from the back bay to the south end. and they just look in shock. and i turn and asked. they said there's been an explosion. they saw people just leaving the area. the visitors to the boston area are here for the marathon, of course. and everybody is wandering around finding out where to go, how to meet up with their

families and exactly what happened. a woman was there and she didn't see if anybody was hurt but she saw smoke in the air. she said it was right by the big glass building right by the finish line. i have to say, there are police officers headed right toward the finish line. i'm at the corner of ring road and huntington. if you know boston, that's right where the shaw's market is. >> i apologize for interrupting you. i want to point out, you're not seeing this but we're getting some still images there at the finish line. and you can see the smoke that witnesses described. and you can see, this is disturbing part, reed, you can see the droves of people on the other side of that fence. that's the scene there when it happened. when we look at our helicopter shots, you can see that area is cleared. those barricades are knocked every on that there is debris everywhere. you can only imagine what happened. >> there are so many questions.

you feel for those people. thousands of people are there in those grand stands on the finish line, waiting for people to finish up. we're going to get back to 7's janet woo. i believe right there at the finish line or close nearby? >> reporter: hi. we're at clarendon and boyleston. about 30 minutes ago, it was unmistakable that this was something that was large and catastrophic. it did not sound anything less than that. we saw huge puffs of white smoke. when we ran up boyleston and then about 15 seconds later, another huge puff of white smoke. the smoke going higher than the bridge that goes over the finish line. my photographer and i were able to run down there before they started clearing the scene. as i said, it has been emergency personnel that were already in this area to deal with the

marathon. so response was within seconds. but sadly, we did see quite a number of people injured and i will say that the injuries looked severe. they immediately cleared out the marathon. no more runners came through. i said the runners are being diverted down commonwealth and newbury street. they probably have no idea what is going on. right now, all of boyleston is cleared. while we were down there, we were forced to move. i will say i'm happy that we were because they were not sure if there was danger still with other explosions that might go off. it is a terrible scene down here. the runners that have just come through. they were happy, elated, and immediately, they turned around and started running back the other direction to go find family, loved ones, other runners that they are friends with. i did have a, i have a colleague up on the bridge and i can tell you that we are now working on

getting more pictures fed in of the moments of the explosion. >> we're getting new video of the sploigs as it happened. there it is. we wanted to warn you. that was an intense explosion. look at the reaction. wow! there was a second explosion. i think we're just hearing it. and you can, you can hear the screams and the panic of the people there. >> there's the second one, i believe, unless that was the camera. >> if we can cue that video back up. we just had video of the explosion at the finish line of the boston marathon. we'll work on getting that recued for you. it is pretty intense. it is very powerful. the resulting orange and gray

smoke. it doesn't seal like there was a fire as a result which in many cases, that happened. but looking at the video on your left-hand side of the screen. >> and the right of. >> it did happen on both. >> right there at the grandstand. you can see i noticed a bunch of runners who fell when that explosion happen. >> there's that sounds. >> one of the questions i had when this, when we first found out was where the explosion was. i wanted to know if it was on the ground or one of the buildings. it appeared it was on the ground right beside the unit that the photographers go up as they cross the finish line. you saw that explosion. it appeared to be the second one. something that just struck me, you see the explosion. you see people obviously reacting to it and then a strantd of balloons going up. as i have saying just a few minutes ago, there are some electrical elements out there.

the power, the tv crews that power probably loud speakers. and at this point, again, your human response in this day and age is to think the worst. we hope that's not the case but you have to think about the elements on there. the electrical components, the manholes and perhaps it was one of those. it is way tooer to tell. the response is still monstrous there on boyleston street. they have it covered there of. >> hopefully it is not our worst fears realized but regardless of the cause, we know that many people, many spectators were carried away. bloody, two medical tents. >> once again, the explosion as we show it. on the right-hand side of the screen, we'll freeze it for you. we'll bring back susan. i'll going to guess you are not in front of a monitor so you cannot see what we're seeing. however we're seeing it now for the first time as are viewers and it is quite devastating to watch. >> i'm actually, you're right.

i'm on foot. there are no vehicles allowed in the area. they've actually blocked off that ring road street that takes you from the marriott hotel area to boyleston where the finish line is. they've set up police tape and barricades. i'm trying to make i ma way as close as i can to the scene but as you can manning, they've blocked off several streets into the area. the cell service is actually difficult to even call. as i look around, i'm making my way on the streets here. i can see everybody is on their phone. parents are holding on to their children and everyone looks a little shell shocked. they're trying to figure out where to go. all the runners still have their metallic blankets on. they're also -- >> can you hear me? >> reporter: yes. >> i apologize to the viewers, i'm not trying to be rude.

i'm trying to process as much information as possible. as you walk around, does power seem to be on in nearby buildings? >> reporter: yes. >> power is on. >> reporter: i am standing in front of a business. this is the pf chang's by the christian science center. i see that they have their lights on. i've been around. there is a bank here. they have their lights on. so here at the prudential center, there is power. >> we're just getting word just to update our viewers. to let you know that we are being told that patients are starting to show up at mass general. of course, this happened. the explosions happened near or very close to the grandstand if not at the grandstand where thousands of people are waiting for runners to cross the line and applaud them as they come through. many people were gravely hurt from this. so they will be spread out to the area hospitals, o of which

is mgh. we're getting word that patients are starting to show up here at local hospitals. any idea or can you give us an idea of what peep there, what the people are doing? are they trying to figure out what exactly happened? we know the explosion. we're trying to piece this all together. are you seeing more people try to get away, as far as possible? because we don't know what could happen? >> reporter: when i started talking to people, they were so upset. those were the folks closest to the finish line. they heard, saw, it was a very scary scene and they reported seeing the smoke and then taking off as fast as they could away from the scene. now, i'm watching as peep have exited that area and now they're just, most of them are either with family, trying to regroup

or they're trying to find people. i'm looking over at the christian science center. there are several groups standing around. most are on their phones. they're trying to let loved ones know they're okay. they're giving them information, as much as they can. i would say they're trying to figure out what to do next. where to go. as you can imagine, many are staying at area hotels or visiting and there is such could n not, confusion as to where they can go. many are trying to be with family members. >> today with us here. we just got some updated information we want to pass along. the mass ave bridge is being close in the both directions. and green line service on the t has been suspended between kenmore and park street. so adam, you got a text from someone on the subway at the time? >> as we're sitting here, i have my phone and a friend of mine

was on the subway, he said even underground, on the green line, underground they heard two explosions just as the people right there did. and he said that immediately, they stopped the train at the next stop. got them off. evacuated. this is far-reaching. this goes without saying. this is the epicenter of where this happened but it is far-reaching. people across the city heard this. obviously, everybody is starting to get the information right now. affecting so many. and you know, it is just, at the scene from sky 7. it is cleared out. it is an ominous picture. >> if you look at the left side of the screen, i don't think if on the left side of the screen they in fact were grandstands there and they've collapsed as a result of the explosion. or if that was an open area there. i've gotten some views, taken a look at some other camera angings and it does look like at least a portion --

>> the a.p. reporter is there. what do you know? >> reporter: well, i can tell you they're not letting people in or out. what we heardas two loud booms. we just sort of looked at each other and we said what's going on? was that thunder? was it a band warming up? no one expected anything like this to happen. before they locked it down, we had some people able to get out on to the street and talk to some witnesses. some people said they saw what looked like an explosion of glass coming from a third story building. we have people who were waiting for runners at the finish line very upset. i actually talked to a family whose daughter sighed the newtown shooting in december. and they had been seated in the vip area earlier and they made it out in time. we're very worried about other runners running from newtown to

raise money who have not crossed the finish line yet. they were making calls and trying to figure out what happened. other people described seeing smoke and glass coming down. someone told us they saw a runner go down. people just very upset from some bloody -- >> can you detail the injury part that you know so far? we've heard about dozens of people. we've heard about 12 people. gravely injured or seriously injured. can you put some specifics to that as you know it? >> reporter: unfortunately, no. on the inside, i'm on the inside in lockdown so i can't confirm injury reports. all we have now are a couple of eyewitness statements from people who were there and actually injured by some of the glass as it was first happening in the confusion. >> i want to ask you a little about the area. a lot of words are being thrown about. there is a cup of copley think

of there's copley square, coply hotel and the copley shopping center. from the video i'm seeing, it looks like the explosions were on boyleston maybe between dart mouth and exiter streets. do you have any confirmation of where this happened? >> if you look at the map for the boston marathon, probably the biggest landmark in the immediate area would be the boston public library. the finish line is on boyleston. >> that's across from the convention center so we're not sure which location this explosion is coming out of. >> reporter: at this time we don't know. >> did most of the injured from what you could tell seem to be spectators, runners? did this occur near the

grandstands? do we have a sense of it? >> reporter: the sense is it occurred near grandstand near the finish line. and like i said, the early reports that we have were of both runners and people who were there to watch the race. that's all i have on that so far. >> we want to rejoin nbc station whdh boston. >> several store front blown out by this blast. it will be up to the fire and rescue people to tell us once their investigation begins. it sure appeared to be right next to the main grandstand next to that cherry picker where the photographer and the commentators are for the marathon. >> this, i'm talking to some of the producers and writers here at the station looking at videos coming in.

these injuries will be, we do know they're very grave and very severe potential. potential people missing limbs. so these injuries are just devastating. and hopefully we pray for those affected. we check back in with susan on the phone. >> reporter: knabb . >> reporter: [ inaudible ] trying to get as close to boyleston street. not able to do that. at every turn, there were several guards, police officers turning everyone away. there's an eerie situation going on. there are a few television screens. i can tell you they have gathered around the screens looking at the video we have on our television, from our television station looking at the video you have from the sky 7 hd. they're trying to figure out what exactly to do. if you can imagine, there are hundreds of thousands of

visitors in the area that don't know the area. don't know how to get around and how to navigate where they should go. how they should get back to either of of their friend' homes or their hotels. many groups are trying to stand around where to go next. anywhere close to boyleston street. i'm standing at the corner of belvedere and huntington. i'm watching as four ambulances try to maneuver through the area. i see three fire trucks in front of me. several ambulance that's are in front of the marriott hotel. and hundreds of people trying to walk and try to get to whatever destination that they can.

>> if you're just joining us, there were two explosions right at the finish of the boston marathon. that's what we can assume is the second explosion. clearly, dozens if not more people are gravely hurt. this happened as you can see, runners running down boyleston. we know that the medical tents were immediately full with people, not from running the marathon but people sitting on or near the grandstand, right where this explosion happened. blowing out the windows of multiple businesses in that area. we know that the injuries are grave, very severe. the mass ave brink has been closed. service on green line between -- >> nbc news, terrorism analyst evan coleman has worked extensively with the fbi in boston. let's bring him in on the phone. what are you hearing in material

of injuries? >> some of these injuries, they don't look good. and i mean, that would suggest that these explosions, that they are the work of some kind of explosive device. it is something with some force. we've seen previous attempts by home grown extremists to bull their own bombs and it hasn't gone so well. an individual was trained by the taliban at a camp on the afghan/pakistani border debt made the a car bomb and later a number of experts would go on to laugh at how immaturish that was and how poor a design that was. this appears to be somewhat more sophisticated. and boston, unfortunately, i don't think is known as a great hub of violent extremists. there are a number of individuals in that area who have been picked up over the years on charges ranging from everything from terrorist

financing to -- >> evan, i want to ask you. because nbc news has not confirm the nature of the explosion yet. is there a way to know based on what we are seeing both in still and live video and recorded videos here. is there any type of explosion that you think can be ruled out at this point? >> no. i think this is very premature. to label it such an act is premature. it is suspicious. the location, the number of casualties, et cetera, et cetera, for a random event. it is certainly still possible. that being that, there are extremist groups that have sought to target these events and they're looking for publicity. that's also, i suppose, you have to take that into account. >> right. i also know that there is a train line, a subway line that

runs right under that. it is the green line. can we tell from the video whether this came from underground or inside an aboveground building? do we have any clues as to that? >> reporter: i certainly haven't seen any evidence of that. it is very premature at this stage. it is up to investigators too tell us whammed here and what the source of the explosion was. based on the explosion, i think it is wonderful to wonder whether this was the work of a deliberate act. >> of course, we don't know where this is coming from. we don't know the source of it. it could be a natural thing. something from underground. it could be something deliberate as you're suggesting. stepping back from implicating someone in this specifically, this sort of showy moment to expose your power is something that a terrorist would want to

do. to be able to get the world watching as you do this in a moment when thousands of people are already watching. >> i think that's the problem with the worldwide media. you have these isolated extremists. people that aren't connected to a terrorist group who will seize a moment like this. and unfortunately, i think the reality is that whether this is some accidents or whether or not this is the work of a deliberate act, i think we can no doubt, we can expect to see individuals try to take credit for this. i think that's an important point to be made. just because a group or groups take credit or issue a claim of responsible for what happened in boston, i think we have to be very careful about attributing that either to a deliberate act or a group in particular. there are individuals out there. we've seen who will try to profit from something like this.

whether or not it is in fact their work. we've seen the pakistani taliban do this on a number of occasions taking credit for incidents that could not have been possibly been related to terrorism and used the media focus. we have to be mindful of that. >> thank you for your reporting. let's rejoin the whdh coverage in boston. >> we saw runners who collapsed from the impact of that blast. as you've been reporting, as i told you earlier, the response was immediate. there are so many medical personnel in this area. i know you're watching it now thanks to don nelson. my colleague who was on the bridge to photograph the finishers. he actually saw the explosions. we have the moment of those explosions. and as people were trying too respond to that first disaster, then all of a sudden, that explosion, that second explosion came out of nowhere. from my perspective, you knew immediately that something was wrong. i have heard gunshots.

i've heard cars back firing. i've heard massive car crashes and this definitely wasn't that. white smoke. and then chaos. lots and lots of response. we don't have any numbers on those affected in the aftermath of this which is still going on. people have not talked to us yet to give a response. i can tell you sadly that my colleagues and i saw many, many people injured and those injuries are severe. there was a lot of blood left at the scene. >> janet, i'm sorry to interrupt you. i'm sorry to interrupt you. i'm going to go back here real quick if you can. i had mentioned earlier, we're getting new video. it would appear maybe some people who were hurt. i wasn't clear myself. the explosion did not happen, there weren't stands that collapsed? there were just effectively people standing around? i am a right? >> reporter: correct. from what i hear, it was day on

theic. at first someone said they thought it happened in a building. that's not correct. this is unconfirmed officially. but eyewitnesses said there appeared to be two packages or two bags on the sidewalk against the know. which i believe is 671 boyleston. this is in between dartmouth and exeter. it is not the building on the corner with the bank of manager. it is closer to the candy store. that's where these packages were. when they went off, it shattered the windows of the building for several floors. that's why people thought the explosion came from inside the building. it appears it is outside. it appears the majority of people affected were bystanders. but for those of us who have covered this marathon many times, that's about the worst place disaster can happen. because that is the number one

prime viewing space. 100 yards from the finish line. so definitely very crowded at the time of this explosion. >> some of the video hasn't been aired yet. it will be very tough for some people to hear. with you what we're gathering, what we believe we see are people without limbs did you see that? are the injuries that grave? >> i will say, reed that yes, there was a lot of blood. and i saw some people with blankets covering their legs and my colleague did see someone that appeared to have lost their legs in the explosion. again, i did not see that directly. but i did see some very severe injuries and a lot of blood. and it would not surprise me if there were multiple cases as you

described. >> i want to confirm something that you had mentioned. that somebody had mentioned. that they had perhaps seen or hear of a bag or a package being next to that. that has not been confirmed yet. correct? that's something that a witness saw. >> reporter: correct. i want to really emphasize if. this is not confirmed information. this is information i got running down, there interviewing people who had seen the explosions. interviewing some of the runners who had come just off the finish line at that time. and again, originally the information was so scattered and so different. as i told you, at first someone thought something happened inside a building. we were later able to confirm that this is something that happened right outside but it had shattered the windows of the building. no official statements yet. they're not taking time out of response to talk to us officially will it does appear that these were things that exploded outside the building will. >> we want you to stay with us

if you can. we are now going to get some sound into the station from witnesses. people who are there. we'll listen to it right now. >> i was just on the other side of the finish line. the explosion looked like it was right outside the marathon sports. right by the finish line. the building next to it. i was over there literally two minutes before. i walked down and i heard two big explosions. large plume of dust, smoke, glass. everybody was going crazy. at first it almost sounded like a cannon blast. it was so strong it almost blew my hat off. and everybody started running the other way. there were a few people running toward them to help out the injured and there were some bad, bad injuries. some people were very badly hurt. >> there you're hearing it from a witness, it sounded like an explosion. powerful enough that it almost knocked his hat off. then as you mentioned, he doesn't confirm but he does say

that there were some very bad, bad injuries in his words. janet is joining us once again live on camera from the scene. we have video of that one explosion happening. and then you can hear the second explosion. we don't see it. do you know if the explosions happened on both sides of boylston street? >> reporter: from my perspective, i think they happened on the same side of boylston stl. i ran down to the library and there was no debris on the library side and i saw myself. when i ran out of the van to go find the source of the explosion, i saw the second explosion go off. it was very close to the first explosion. i would say two huge puffs of white smoke. that very loud bang. as you can see in the video taken from don nelson, the explosion was so severe that runners coming down the road. i saw a couple of them fall over

from the impact of that explosion. and i could not really see civilians at that time. it was just chaotic and there was so much, as you can see, it is very crazy here. you can still hear me. i stepped out of the way to let the police vehicles come through. let me make another note for you as a side bar. again, at that point, when you look at the majority of people that crossed the marathon, the majority are crossing at that time. they all crossed between three and four hours. the elite runners don't have much company when they're coming through. the slow ones don't have a lot of company. this is the height of the marathon. the height of the crowds. people watching their loved ones. runners coming through. and almost immediately, everything was suspended. a few more runners came through and then they immediately diverted them. those runners, probably having no idea what was going on. that this was happening on that final stretch of marathon.

the place they envisioned during their whole run of reaching where they have trained months and months to reach on this very, very special day. as i've been reporting earlier, lots of response and it was immediate. >> stay with us. we want to get right now to katie lash who happens to be a friend and neighbor of mine who was down at the finish line at a nearby bar. katie, if you can hear me, please let it is know. >> caller: i can. >> as a friend, i'm glad you're okay. tell me what you saw and heard. what happened after. >> caller: we were inside the bar. we had a few friends that were heading out the to go check out someone that was going to be crossing the finish line soon. and immediately, they heard the boom. and they were pushed back in by the bouncers to go back in the bar. so at that point they weren't letting any of us out. so we did not actually get a chance to see much. but about, i would say about 15,

20 minutes later, we were out, escorted out of back. >> so they had people stay inside and kind of in a lockdown -- >> caller: for a while. yeah. >> they would not let you leave or let people in. i know you're a nurse. i don't know if you have heard of some of the injuries reported out there or if you saw some of the injuries. i don't want to since you are put you on the spot being that you saw what you did, and heard saw what you did and heard what you heard, what is your assess many of with? be dealing with? >> caller: we didn't actually, the police weren't allowing us to go because they weren't -- the police wasn't allowing us to go toward the area, so we were of escorte escorted outward toward toward water. so once we down there, there were a few a few ambulances set up along the way that they wereway, that they were helping some peoplelike, left t have left the scene. there were ambulances that were -- some of the emts were

heading across the overpasses to go down by the charleston. to g. >> this will be question unless reed here wants to talk to you. i wanted to talk to you. i wanted to ask as a nurse, i know you're not an e.r. nurse, you work children. when you're dealing with mass casualty like this, like it's wy like, this set the there would triage setscene. i imagine triage, priority victim first. how does something like this normally work if you can touch on that as far as response? >> the only thing i you, there medical medical personnel around. it couldn't have been, you know, there couldn't have been more responders in such a short period of time because they had been there for the they had been there for therunners. so to their, you know, in fact, they so to their, they were probably help out to help out okay. katie lash happens to be a friend of mine lash happens to friend of mine who was down oka. thanks for giving us whatever r insight you just tuning in

at 49 minutes past 3:00, i'm joined up here with reid. we'vein, we've been covering explosion, a couple explosions reported at the finish at the finish line of the boston marathon. marathon, just happening just before the 3:00 hour. all-out chaos after two explosions. the source of the explosions unknown right now. we're probably quite a ways out from knowing that. what we do know, several people injured. some reported to be grave injuries. it shut down the green line in that vicinity. the bridge is shut down. all-out response. >> received a statement from the boston marathon, it is very terse. it goes as follows. "there were two bombs that exploded near the finish line in today's boston marathon. we are working with law enforcement to understand what exactly has happened." that is what the boston bar thon officially has released. we also know the fbi is on its way to aid in this investigation right now, which, of course, is being led by the boston police

department. and so this investigation is just getting under way and, of course, we've been talking about this, we intimated this at the last hour or so, adam, when we hear about this kind of an explosi explosion, where it happened, the situation that you immediately think that this was done intentionally to cause exactly the result, to get the result exactly that it has. we do know there were two explosions, obviously happening near the viewing stands at the boston marathon, the finish line of the marathon and there are many, many injuries. as we have heard from our crews on the street and some of the witness, these injuries were severe. there it is, again, that explosion that happened approximately an hour ago followed by another explosion which you may hear momentarily. right there. >> i'm sorry to interrupt. you read the statement from the boston marathon, and what stands out the most, what's frankly scary is they are calling it two

bombs. we have been cautious to call -- >> a big explosion. >> i don't know if that's -- >> you're right. that's true. good point. we were saying two explosions. they're almost confirming that, in fact, it was -- it was two bombs. >> unless they have just been a little careless with their words, they've got a lot going on right now obviously. but to call what happened there bombs, and this is not our assessment, this is not the police department's assessment, the fire, this is coming directly from the boston marathon that there were two bombs that exploded. and quite frankly that sends shivers down our spine. >> i glossed over that, myself. perhaps it is in their immediately and urgency to try to get a word out, to get a statement out. they may have just said that. but perhaps they know something we don't know. and they've kind of tipped their hat right there. but obviously we're going to get to the bottom of this. boston police right now leading this investigation. but as i mentioned just a moment

ago, the fbi is on its way to help out with this. and if in fact it goes in that direction, and i'm not saying it is, and this is not confirmed, but if this was intentional, and this is, you know, no doubt an act of terrorism against the city of boston. and against the people there watching the boston marathon. as you see from that explosion, the force of that explosion, buckled those steel gates, buckled those steel gates and you know that there were just hundreds of people behind those gates. >> we're now joined, reid, by our colleague, amanda grace, who's been gathering information. amanda, you've been watching our coverage and gathering information. as you look at these pictures, isn't it incredible to imagine the force, to as reid said, buckle these steel barricades, to clear out that section? and you've probably seen the video of the actual explosions which, again, to point out, released from the boston marathon, calling them two

bombs. now, again, i guess we have to be -- we certainly have to be very careful to call these their words and not ours because it's still so early on in the investigation. >> absolutely, adam and reid. i want to bring you up to date on another event. this may or may not be connected. we have no confirmation on this, but there was a fire at the jfk library in south boston that ignited shortly after these explosions. a fire at the jfk library, this was in the new wing of the library and did cause some damage there. the fire is now out. no injuries at that location. we have no word of historic documents or anything, there, actually damaged. this happened so soon after these two explosions, of course, a lot of questions this afternoon. could this possibly be connected? ? >> all right, thank you very much, amanda. and from amanda, and we're now getting a picture -- this is exactly what you were talking about, amanda. this is a picture sent to 7 of a

fire. that looks like quite the fire. quite the fire at the jfk library, as amanda mentioned that started shortly after these explosions. we don't know if it's related. so we're not trying to connect the dots here but it's very interesting this is happening and certainly if, in fact, this is just unrelated, just yet another complication for boston fire departments to handle because i would imagine that most of the department personnel, as is police -- we're hearing of another explosion. do we know where this explosion happened? we're getting -- all right. >> okay. we're getting word that there's been a third explosion. may have been a controlled explosion. we don't know. i guess that would mean, perhaps, there was a suspicious package and they blew it up. >> we don't know. but potentially that's what a controlled explosion, i would imagine that's -- in this situation where, you know, i would believe that, you know,

bomb squad found something or pointed out something and instead of taking a chance, they blew it up on their own. we'll get to that information here as soon as we can, folks. >> i think there's a lot of -- i think that the police and the fire and city of boston, the federal investigators who are now coming in, there's a lot going on right now. we can assure you of that. part of the subway's been close. the mass bridge has been closed. brookline police cleared out washington square and coolidge corner. it's a scary day no matter how this happened. we're going to, you know, try to stay away from that as much as possible until we get confirmation and think more about the people who were injured and our prayers and our thoughts to them and their families. we also understand quickly, reid, that president obama has been notified of this situation and is monitoring it very closely. >> all right. let's head to mass general hospital where 7's brandon ga know gano is joining us on the phone. >> we just confirmed four

patients from the explosion are being treated here at mass general hospital. i actually just spoke to two u.s. soldiers who just got back from afghanistan, served in afghanistan, and they were running out of the hospital and they tell me they were about 50 yards away when the explosion happened. and without hesitation, they ran over to help those victims. they said it was chaotic. they say the victims had huge lacerations. they said there was missing limbs involved. and just a lot of panic. so they did everything they could to help those victims until emergency personnel could get to them. and then they actually ran from the finish line to here at massachusetts general hospital to give blood thinking that was another way they could possibly help those victims. they said as they were running to the hospital to try to give blood to help out, they were trying to get a ride. a lot of people who hadn't heard of these explosions didn't know what was going on. they said they were 50 yards

away when that explosion -- and they just tried to help as many victims as they could until people more trained in that situation arrived. i know one of the -- there's two young guys, young soldiers served in afghanistan. they said, you know, we're from boston, we expected to see things like this in afghanistan. we didn't expect to see things like this in boston. one of them was emotionally upset. you could tell both of them were handling it in different ways. they said they were helping the victims as much as they could. they were in terrible shape. like we've heard, there were missing limbs involved. certainly a lot of lacerations. so we just, again, saw them in massachusetts general hospital. and when we spoke with pr representatives here at the hospital, they told us about 10, 15 minutes ago that four patients from the explosion are being treated right here. that's the latest i have from here in mass general. >> brandon, quickly, if i can, you mentioned you had seen four

pa patients go in. any idea, do you anticipate more going in or has it been quiet since you've been there on the scene? >> it certainly hasn't been quiet, but it's difficult to tell. i didn't specifically see, you know, four people -- i've seen many ambulances. so it's hard to know if there are more four patients being treated here now. but i know when we spoke to hospital officials, they confirmed to us that four patients from the explosion were here being treated, but since then, i've seen maybe four to five ambulances come through with their sirens on. so it's possible that there's more. until i speak with them, it's hard to really know for sure, but right now ten yards in front of me, there is two young women who are visibly upset, hugging themselves and cries. i can only assume, we're going to try to speak to them to see what they know. >> all right. >> that does it for us. stay with msnbc for continuing coverage of the explosions in boston. chris jansing takes over now.