What Happened In The Boston Marathon Explosions? 6 Different Vantage Points

What happened in Boston? At 3:15pm EST this afternoon, two explosions occurred within close proximity to the finish line of the Boston Marathon, one of the largest free-standing marathon races in the world. The duo of explosions–reportedly due to devices containing ball bearings–occurred roughly four hours after the start of the Marathon, after most of the 27,000 participants had finished, according to NPR.

At the time of this writing, it is being widely reported that three people have lost their lives from the coordinated explosions, along with early estimates of “at least 115” injured, via ABC News. There are no more details to be shared just yet regarding the intent of this event, but a White House official said, “Any event with multiple explosive devices — as this appears to be — is clearly an act of terror, and will be approached as an act of terror,” adding “we don’t yet know who carried out this attack, and a thorough investigation will have to determine whether it was planned and carried out by a terrorist group, foreign or domestic.”

Additionally, President Obama said, “We will find out who did this and we will hold them accountable,” earlier tonight in a national address, and law enforcement officials have been told to act as if the event is a “terrorist attack.”

There are also mixed reports of a third blast at JFK Library (nearly 5 miles away), but Boston PD has tweeted that it “appears to be fire related,” so it’s not clear as to whether or not the range of this tragedy stretches beyond the initial finish line area.

As a result of today’s Boston Marathon explosions, although not the deadliest attack in the U.S. since September 11th, 2001, has significantly injured a large amount of bystanders, in a horrifyingly visual manner.

Here’s the most widely viewed video of one of the explosions, via YouTube.

We’ve also gathered five other different views–vantage points if you will–of the tragedy. If you’re looking to get a better idea of what happened in Boston today, continue reading on the pages below. Remember that these are live videos, and they have not been screened or edited in any way, at least by anyone other than their original author. Some may be graphic.

Our hearts and prayers are with those affected.

See the other five vantage points:

Aftermath, via Bloomberg.

Behind finish line, via ampedin (news capture)

Overhead footage, via ampedin

Grandstand view, via massagenerd

Compilation aftermath, via thebostonglobe