that's definitely an explosion. 2:50 afternoon about three hours after the runners had crossed the finish line, dozens injured at this point, confirmed two deaths. right now a third explosion occurred at the john f. kennedy library. we want to go to pierre thomas. what more have you learned, pierre? >> well, it struck me looking at that video, george, you can see the blast comes from a pretty contained area. and the chief let in some hints. he let in some hints into what they believe took plac he talks about the concern of packages about those left behind

are being treated as packages. gives you a sense of what they believe caused these explosions. small portable devices that can be left in a crowd. >> what are you hearing about jfk library? >> we're trying to get additional information on that as well. i do have a federal source says two people believed to be dead, dozens injured. two people believed to be dead in this attack. >> we're starting to get reports from mayor bloomberg and los angeles police department as well going to take special precautions at the dodgers game tonight. we know pennsylvania avenue in front of the white house has been closed as well. what will police officers, police commissioners around the country be doing now in the wake of this bombing? >> here's what we know, baltimore city police, philadelphia, washington, d.c., on heightened state of alert. i expect you will see it across the country in major cities. again, for public transit areas where people will be

congregating in large numbers. this will be standard operating procedures until people know more about is this an unfolding event or contained event that is over. >> look at pierre. you were talking about two dead confirmed so far, but that's overall, not at the kennedy library? >> correct. i meant two dead confirmed from my source overall in this incident. there could be more, but my official knew of two and he's got dozens injured. >> yes. dozens by one account 64, but again that number is tentative right now. commissioner davis also said he asked everyone to send in leads, send in all possible leads in this situation saying they have no specific report of a truck which must have come up at some point. pierre, have you heard about that? somebody thought they spotted a truck? >> i have not heard that information. also very interesting, diane, that the commissioner talked

about the fact that they want witnesses who fled the scene to call back in to give them information that they will be going to the hospital fanning out talking to people who were injured. again, this thing is in the very early stages. and they have to make sure that they didn't miss anything. because that critical clue could come from someone that could direct their investigation going forward. >> police have been calling on all eyewitnesses to send in video, to send in photographs, to tell authorities what they know. we want to talk to another eyewitness on the scene right now, joe conway, where were you when this happened, joe? >> i was about 500 feet from the finish line. >> and what did you see? >> we were looking towards the finish line by the prudential and by the mandarin orange hotel and we saw the first -- heard and saw the first explosion go off, which was a giant cloud of gray smoke. at that point everything around us became very quiet. we all looked at each other, i

was with two other friends, and the second exploex went off and at that point we all yelled to each other just run. we started running towards the prudential center to the food court because the main entrance was completely crowded with people trying to run in. and at the time we made it up to the food court, people were running out because they heard the explosions and didn't know what was going on. so we waited there for a short time. within, you know, a minute of that happening we ran down to the main street, grabbed the security from the prudential center security and just basically told them not knowing what was going on but to keep people away from the barrels that were lined on the street. and at that point people were running in chaos trying to get into the mall, up the street, because where we were there was a big opening that's outside, dunkin' donuts had a truck there. that's where people have a tendency to congregate roughly around 500 feet away.

people just kind of running in chaos at that time. what we did with the security was we grabbed a bunch of the railings that they put, you know, the fences on the street and we kind of circled around the major trash barrels that were sitting there and just kept telling people just to keep going towards the opposite side. >> so you were pushing people away from the fence. were you able to see any of the injured? >> we weren't. like i said, we were about 500 feet away and people were just running everywhere at that point. we did not see any of the injuries. we did see the explosions go off. we did see the smoke go up. and at that point after the second one that's when people understood something was wrong and started running at that point. >> and, joe, we've heard some people that they could feel the ground shake. 500 feet away, could you feel it? >> absolutely. diane. actually, i had a baseball hat on my head and i could feel the

concussion and my baseball head almost fell off my head because of the concussion. you could feel the concussion. >> good heavens. again, at that moment to see people reacting tor ingreacting going into the scene, to see law enforcement going into the scene to take care of people. tell me some of the comments around you as people were trying to compute what happened. >> a lot of people were trying to compute what had happened. one woman as we ran up to -- i must say though at that point at that second explosion at that point the police -- i mean there's police all over that route. they knew something was wrong. they were already by the time the second explosion came about they were already in action. there were already moving about. they were already pushing people off the runway or the -- where they run the boston marathon. and they were stopping runners from going down any further.

they literally jumped into action immediately. as we made it up to the food court as people were running out because there were more people running out than trying to get in, i stopped a lady and i said what are you running out for and she said we heard gunshots tworks gunshots. i said those weren't gunshots. that was two explosions from outside. and that's what they heard. they heard the two explosions outside. but people inside the mall towards the boylston side started to panic and just ran out of the building. and we just waited until, you know, we had security around and everybody started telling people to go back in. that's when we went back down to boylston, grabbed security again and said to them make sure you keep people away from the barrels. and we grabbed the fencing and pulled it around the barrels around the prudential entrance. >> joe, thank you for sharing that story. also thank you for taking action at the time. important action to keep people

away from that scene. i've got to go now to another eyewitness near the scene. rachel, where were you when this happened? and what did you see? >> we were on boylston street. we were about 50 feet from the finish line. we were walking towards actually the exact location where the explosions went off. we were headed there to cheer on a friend as she crossed the finish line. and all of a sudden we just heard this huge bang. it sounded like a cannon. and, you know, i looked around and you could see people looking up sort of like in the sky oh, where are the fireworks thinking it was sort of a celebratory bang and we looked ahead and there was this giant cloud of gray smoke. and it was -- the whole crowd was still for a moment. and then the second bang went off, the second explosion went off. and it was just -- you know, it was terrifying. it was just, you know, absolute chaos.

people started, you know, screaming and yelling to each other. you know, they were trying to find, you know, their friends and family members. and, you know, people just started running away from the finish line. and, you know, moments later maybe like minutes later we heard, you know, sirens filling the streets and heading back towards the finish line. it was absolutely terrifying. >> you were so close only 50 feet from the finish line as you said. were you able to see any of the victims of this? give us a sense of the damage. >> no. like i said there was this giant cloud of gray smoke. and after the -- and it was completely blocking any view from the actual center of the explosion. i had been looking to the left of me on the street as marathoners went by and so i turned and looked straight ahead

and just saw this huge cloud of smoke. i could see a little debris, you know, further in front of me on the ground. but after that second explosion went off we turned and just had to get right out of there. we didn't know at that point was another one going to go off even closer to us. it was just -- we were confused, we didn't know what was going on. we just knew at that point we needed to get out of there. >> rachel, we thank you so much for calling in to us letting us know what you saw. and we are struck by all of these reports from the eyewitnesses how quickly people moved in to help, law enforcement moved in to help. and we heard earlier that between the two explosions police had already moved in. so we're talking ten to 15 seconds before they reacted and immediately deployed. i want to go to martha. >> they just evacuated the -- at

the harvard academy. they are clearing out that school of government there. everybody in the area is supposed to leave that school. i'm also hearing that the explosion at the kennedy library was small. again, they told us no injuries. but that is an absolutely beautiful building. it is all glass front. it is in front of boston harbor. all glass, a huge american flag hanging down in the center of that library. we're trying to get more details on exactly what happened there whether something was dropped in a trash can, we don't know. but certainly they believe it is related somehow to these marathon bombings as well. >> and, martha, we heard the police commissioner say they don't know yet whether this explosion was related to the two explosions at the finish line. getting conflicting reports about what might have set it off at the jfk library. >> i'm getting the same thing too, george. but many believe it is probably related.

and setting off a bomb like that, again i have to harkin back to iraq and how they set off explosives there and that was actually a radio controlled device. if someone actually drops something into a trash can, it could be a timer or it could be radio controlled meaning it was set off by a cell phone, they have a number of ways to do that. but those were so closely timed, it was probably either on a timer or some sort of radio controlled device. >> again, we heard our own consultant dick clarke say this would have been about the size of an ied in iraq or afghanistan. >> it probably was. again, it was a powerful blast. and people felt that. but it wasn't enormous. and those blasts in afghanistan and iraq that do so much damage look to me to be about the same size early on in the war. you could probably put them in a backpack and no one would really

notice. they obviously got bigger and bigger as the war went on, but a very small device can do so much damage. >> and we're following breaking news development at jfk library. they've just tweeted fire in the building is out, appears to have started in mechanical room of new building, all staff and visitors accounted for. >> yeah, but no injuries reported. again, some people think it's related. who knows, it may be some sort of electrical fire. anything today after that bombing at the boston marathon would be suspicious. >> and, martha, going forward, officials taking nothing for granted. you see the helicopter over the scene there. the federal aviation administration has closed down the air space above the bomb site in boston. we've reported as we said earlier pennsylvania avenue in front of the white house is closed down as well. major cities across the country taking security precautions now at major public events set for this evening and at other

locations across for example across new york city mayor bloomberg saying they are going to put enhanced security measures in place right now. >> i think you'll see that all across the country exactly as you said, george and diane. it's the safest thing they can possibly do at this point. they don't know who did this. they don't know why it happened. so they want to look out across the country. i mean, it's the same reason they're evacuating the kennedy school of government. that was just a smart thing to do after some explosive device or something happened at the kennedy library to just associate those two names. we've also got the national guard again apparently more than 400 massachusetts national guard they're probably continuing to secure the area, continuing to look for any suspicious devices. >> yes, but it gives us a sense of complicated it is to decide where to go, which packages to check, how do you deploy the 400 national guard and the 2,100 police all called in. >> especially, diane, when you

had no idea this would happen. you have all these national guards men, all the massachusetts state police, they're there for an event that's supposed to be wonderful, that's supposed to be the boston marathon. they're trying to keep order there. but again it is also a real blessing that all of them were there and the emergency medical personnel to go into action immediately. and they were of course waiting for anyone who might have trouble in the race, instead they had trauma on their hands. >> i want to go back to peter brown, another eyewitness on the scene now moved to one of the hospitals in the area. peter, first of all i've been told you're not injured, correct? >> that is correct. and what, george, i think i want to put a couple points on is that what we're not talking about is really the walking wounded that have walked into some of these hospitals. the hospitals in boston have declared emergency situations at this point as you can imagine. there's also seeing a lot of emotional trauma for those

people who witnessed what they saw today. by the way, just so you know, i've been involved with the race for the last 30 years. and today i started my day in hopkinnington. i was the spotter on the men's lead media truck. and know that area very well. so if you have any specific questions about the area, i can speak to that. >> i do want to first of all on the -- let me just ask you about where you are now. you're at a hospital? >> no, actually i'm a little bit -- a little distance away from that. i'm actually at the prudential center which is closer to the finish line. and talking to some of the people in the prudential center they heard the explosions throughout the building. >> was there any glass shattered at the prudential center? >> no. it's too far away. but they certainly -- but they were loud enough to be able to hear the explosion from here. >> and what else were they able to tell you?

what else did you see? >> just the plume of smoke that came out. and it's really very crowded space down there. the area that they chose is as dense of a population as there is at the marathon. it's at the finish line. it's directly across the street from the v.i.p. seating where hundreds of people are located and where they crown the winners of the race. >> how many people are we talking in that area? >> gee, george, you could probably put a couple hundred people in there. so these numbers that you're hearing, you know, in terms of 23 injured, i wouldn't want to speculate on the number of those who lost life, but in terms of injuries i would think this number is going to go above the current 23. the other thing too that's very interesting is right after the finish line you have a pretty decent size medical tent that normally is helping people who

were dehydrated or just feeling pain in their back that are normally taken care of in this medical tent. and it quickly became a triage center. that is literally feet past the finish line. >> i know you're not there, but what kind of reports have you been getting from mass general or other hospitals in the area? have you been able to talk to people on the scene there? >> yes, i think one of the things that certainly is most disturbing is the term amputation or lost limbs. we've heard that. i don't have a number to put on that, but we've certainly heard that from the hospitals. >> a lot of leg injuries. >> yes, definitely. in fact, in some of the video you see that people just collapse when the explosion happens. it almost seems as if they're being taken out at the legs. >> again, these are just shattering reports. we thank you peter brown. i would like to go back if we could to that last video we received which seems to be the clearest yet. and let's just stop for a moment once again the instant before,

the after. >> we get the sense right there of what we've been hearing from these eyewitnesses all afternoon the power, the volume of those explosions right there. terrifyingly loud explosions setting off a scene of chaos right there before the finish line at the boston marathon at 2:50 p.m. this afternoon. >> so con kusive that it actually lifted the baseball cap off the head of one of our eyewitnesses who phoned in. i want everyone watching to know we'll have a special one-hour edition of "world news" tonight.

i'll be leaving to prepare and join you at 6:30 ooesh e eastern time. we will have all of the latest video and details. >> we're going to stay on the scene right now. all reports coming in from boston right now from the medical centers in the area. several different medical centers now treating the wounded, treating the casualties right now. two confirmed dead so far according to police commissioner ed davis. we've also heard from the governor of massachusetts deval patrick also been in touch with president obama ordered all federal assistance that will be required by the police and other authorities in boston in the wake of those two explosions that occurred near the finish line in the boston marathon at 2:50 this afternoon. we've been gathering information from eyewitnesses since that story broke. coming up on three hours ago. also our chief justice correspondent pierre thomas checking in with law enforcement officials in washington and across the country. pierre, just bring everyone up to speed right now on what you

have learned about what happened from federal and other law enforcement officials. >> sorry, george, i couldn't hear you. >> i was just saying bring everyone up to speed right now on what you've been able to gather from federal and other law enforcement officials. >> what we've been told is that they're treating this as a bombing. that they believe this was done by small multiple devices. we've been able to see the new video that's come in that it was pretty contained where the blast emanated from. they were powerful in that they injured the people close to them. we're also being told that they believe at least two people are dead, multiple people injured. they are in the process of, again, swabbing the scene trying to get residues to get information about what type of bombs these may have been. the fbi, atf, all federal agencies are being brought there to help the boston police and state police with this particular investigation. again, it's being treated as a crime scene, a terrorist act.

they don't know whether it's domestic, they don't know whether it's international, but it's being treated as a terrorist act. >> what we do know from commissioner edward davis is two explosions, the third explosion at the john f. kennedy library, they're not saying whether that was related or who or what might have been behind that. but they're also taking now security precautions in washington, d.c. and across the country in the wake of these explosions. >> yes, washington, d.c., philadelphia, you just heard the new york city mayor bloomberg is ordering the police department to step up security at major transit locations. any particular event which is involving large numbers of people in the next 24 hours in major cities is likely to get increased security. >> okay, pierre, thanks very much. i want to go to david now another eyewitness who was there when the explosions took place a little before 3:00 this afternoon. david, thank you for joining us. what did you see? >> not too much actually.

i just saw the smoke and heard the explosions pretty much is what i saw. >> how far away were you? >> well, i had just crossed the finish line of the marathon and maybe about two or three minutes after i had crossed a woman was handing me gatorade and that's when i heard the first explosion, turned around, saw the smoke and heard the other explosion. >> so you were actually running in the marathon and as you said you just crossed the finish line. could you tell how far these explosions were from the finish line? and what could you feel from where you were? >> i couldn't really tell exactly how far it was. i don't know, maybe a mile, maybe 700 -- i don't know, 600 or 800 meters, something like that probably. and, i don't know, i just saw everybody was panicking and going around. all the aides, the marathon aides were trying to usher everybody out away from the explosion. yeah, i mean, that's all i could really see. >> okay. david, thank you very much for

sharing that with us, for calling in. congratulations on finishing that marathon on what has turned into a horrific day and started out as a day of such celebration. i want to go to john carl now at the white house, john, because you've gotten more on what the president has done in the wake of this bombing. >> the president has brought together his homeland security team. as i told you earlier, he's been in touch with the governor of massachusetts, the mayor of boston, they are tracking the situation here. and, george, we've also noticed that the security perimeter at the white house has been expanded. we see yellow police tape out beyond over by lafayette park, you can't see it from here but right behind the camera the public has basically been pushed back aways from the white house as a precaution. but the president bringing together his homeland security team here tracking this basically minute-by-minute. >> we just saw that empty pennsylvania avenue. john, thanks very much.

we want to go to another eyewitness now called in. david, where were you when this happened? >> i was on the second floor of a bar called forum which is right near the finish line. we heard one very loud explosion. i mean, you felt it right in your gut. everybody looked around. a few seconds later a second very loud explosion went off at which point i decided it was probably terrorism. i headed out the back of that bar and walked up the street a few hundred yards away from the charles river. so i walked that way. and it was fairly reminiscent of 9/11 where people were walking around trying to use their phone and wondering if they should go over the bridge to the charles river to get to cambridge. >> so this is just everyone streaming away from the scene. about how far from the explosions were you? how far were you when you began? >> we were right there 10, 20, 30 yards. i think people that aren't from boston should understand this

section of the back bay where the finish line is is filled with bars and restaurants. and many of them are rented out by companies or by charities. so it's really not runners finished, it's more like 2:00 or 3:00 when the party gets going which is the reason i think this was deliberately planned so the bomb would go off around that time. >> this would be the time when people are gathered the most in that area. >> if you wanted to do damage, that is when boylston street is very, very hard to move up and move down. which is why i went out the back door towards the charles river. >> okay, david, thank you very much. glad you got out of there safely. let's go back to martha in washington. martha >> just a few details, george. there was no indication of any threat beforehand before these bombings today. also, the type of bomb, again, as we've been talking about even though it caused a lot of damage, it appeared to be fairly

small, a fairly small explosive device, not a large military-style bomb, but because you had all those people there in shorts and t-shirts, they had absolutely no protection. they had absolutely no idea anything like this would have happened. so no matter what size that device turns out to be, that caused a lot of damage just because this was a soft target. >> martha, help us out here. you have experience from afghanistan and iraq. i'm not an expert in this, but it's not all that difficult to put together an explosive device like this? >> no, it really isn't. and you saw that evolve over the decade in iraq. at the very beginning they were very small devices, very small ball of fire kind of like we saw today. and they advanced obviously because the u.s. military did as well. they had better body armor, they had armored vehicles, but those early explosive devices were really pretty rudimentary. >> and this one as you said we

know now there were two, we don't know about the third explosion that went off in the john f. kennedy library whether it was related, what exactly caused it at this point. but you gave us important information right at the beginning of this report right here. pierre thomas had given similar information earlier. there have not been a widespread threat alert in any sense of any kind of specific threat against the marathon before today. >> no specific threat whatsoever. but clearly this was well-planned, george. clearly somebody knew what they were doing. they knew they were going to do it by the finish line. there were two devices. again, we don't know whether that third device at the jfk library was in fact related although many people in boston believe it probably was. we'll still have to wait and see. but very well planned, just to be able to get by all those police officers, to be able to get by the national guard, someone knew what they were doing.

>> and pierre thomas, if i can go back to you at this point as well. given the fact that there was no information that came in before this took place, where do law enforcement officials begin to try to piece together who might have been behind this after the deal with the trauma going on right now? >> again, george, the remnants of whatever they can find from the bomb will be critical in helping them figure out what happened. they also will be poring over any surveillance tape in the area that might have captured someone dropping off a package. but i can tell you, george, this is exactly the scenario that law enforcement officials, fbi officials, atf, bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms officials have been talking to me about for years now, that they believe in the wake of 9/11 they've been better able to look for and block major scale attacks of taking over a plane, doing something like that. but what they've been concerned about is lone wolf or small scale attacks involving a small number of people. something like this where you