First pictures of the Boston bomb: Pressure cooker was used in the device

New crime scene photographs of the remnants of the first bomb which detonated during Monday's Boston marathon shows that a six-liter pressure cooker was used in at least one of the deadly charges - as experts described the devices as military-style 'anti-personnel' devices.

The images - released by the Joint Terrorist Task Force - show the wreckage of a stainless steel pressure cooker with an Underwriters Laboratory safety mark and an imprint that reads gas or electric, with experts describing the devices as military-style 'anti-personnel' devices.

Furthermore, it is being claimed the deadly devices used were designed to act like 'homemade claymores' - powerful, directional anti-personnel devices.

Described as using a 'low explosive', most likely black or smokeless powder, the bombs are reported to have exploded outwards with shrapnel at 3,300 feet per second. The lid of a pressure cooker was found on a nearby rooftop and investigators were able to pinpoint which type of cooker was used.



One brand of pressure cooker with '6L' on the bottom is made by the Spanish company Fagor, which sells about 50,000 of the six-liter pots in the United States every year, according to the New York Times.

This gives investigators a real chance to narrow down their list of suspects - which they said yesterday was 'wide open' - and find out who is responsible for the worst attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11.

Roy Parker, a retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives agent who ­developed the agency’s explosives training program, said examiners are looking at scraps of the bomb components, bags and all other forensic evidence.

He said: 'You’re looking for a needle in a haystack, but the needle is there. If you look long enough, you’ll get stuck with it. This is not an unsolvable crime.'

The bombs had the power to propel metal shards great distances, designed primarily to maim - like a military 'claymore' device.

The resulting explosions sent metal tearing through skin and muscle, destroying the lower limbs of some victims who had only shreds of tissue holding parts of their legs together when they arrived at the emergency room of Massachusetts General Hospital, doctors there said.

nitial examination of the bombs revealed they appeared to utilize battery packs and circuit boards, which indicates a sophisticated triggering mechanism with an 'egg-like' timer.

'It appeared to be built from scratch but with a sophisticated triggering mechanism. And frankly, at the end of the day, all bombs are crude devices, and it is the way they are triggered that can be sophisticated,' said one official with strong knowledge of explosives. 'They functioned as designed.'

Flash powder or an explosive sugar chlorate mixture might have been the bombs' main ingredient, according to an unnamed expert quoted by CNN. That would explain the yellowness of the flame, as shown in video and photos of the event.

Higher-quality military explosive is usually gray or black, said the expert.

Photographs taken by a member of the public of the second bomb site before and after detonation show an orange and grey bag next to the barrier - right where the bomb appears to have gone off.

Detectives are now investigating the possibility that this bag contained the device that exploded with such devastating effect.

However images and fabrics from the remains of the bomb shows they were kept in black nylon duffel bags so it is as yet unclear if the bomb was in he gray and orange bag.



Vigils were held overnight as hundreds of people gathered to remember the victims, the third of whom was named yesterday as Chinese Boston University student Lü Lingzi.

Lingzi was attending the Boston marathon with her friend Zhou Danling, a student of actuarial science at BU, who was originally said to be in a coma at Boston Medical Center but showing signs of improvement after suffering serious injuries in the blast.

The other two fatalities in the bombing have been identified as eight-year-old Martin Richard, the son of a Dorchester community activist, and 29-year-old restaurant manager Krystle Campbell.

A law enforcement official told CBS News that the two bombs that exploded were made to look like discarded property.

Earlier in the day, lead FBI agent Richard DesLauriers confirmed that items from the first blast have been recovered and are being sent to a special facility at FBI headquarters in Quantico for study - in the hope that they will lead them to the killer or killers.

He also admitted the investigation into those responsible was in its 'infancy' and that the range of suspects remained 'wide open'.

More than 2,000 tips from the public were reviewed and analyzed in the first 24 hours but no individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. The FBI has issued a plea to members of the public for help in the hunt for clues saying: 'Someone knows who did this'.

He said among those items were 'pieces of black nylon which could be from a backpack and fragments of BBs (ball bearings) and nails possibly contained in a pressure cooker device.

'The bag would have been heavy because of the components believed to be in it. We won't know with certainty until the laboratory completes its final review.'

The second device was also housed in a metal container says the document, but so far there is not enough evidence to confirm for certain if a pressure cooker was also used.

'Someone knows who did this,' added Richard DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office.

'Importantly, the person who did this is someone’s friend, neighbor, coworker or relative. We are asking anyone who may have heard someone speak about the marathon, or the date of April 15, in any way that indicated that he or she may have targeted this event to call us.'

DesLauriers added: 'At this time, there have been no claims of responsibility.'

Earlier he vowed to go 'to the ends of the earth' to find those responsible.

Source: DailyMail

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