Boston has marked the one-week anniversary of the twin marathon bombings with a moment of silence observed across the nation, from the White House to the New York Stock Exchange.
The city honoured the victims of the blasts with a moment of silence at 2.49pm on Monday (0449 AEST Tuesday) that was also observed in Washington, by President Barack Obama and lawmakers, and in New York, at the city’s stock exchange.
Across Massachusetts, the silence was broken by the tolling of church bells.
“God bless the people of Massachusetts,” said Governor Deval Patrick at a ceremony outside the statehouse. “Boston Strong.”
Hundreds gathered outside the security cordon set up near the blast sites at the marathon finish line on Boylston Street to honour the dead and wounded. Some prayed, others left flowers. Church bells rang out across the city.
“I am here for a friend seriously injured and for all the victims,” teacher John Abbott, who was unable to finish last week’s race, told AFP.
“Boston on the surface is a very cold city, but when you get below the surface, this is what you get. People are all business here so it is impressive to see people stop for a minute and show what they really feel.”
“We began last Tuesday with three American flags and then people have kept on bringing flowers, stuffed animals – all kinds of stuff,” said Kevin Brown, who has helped maintain the memorial at Boylston and Berkeley streets.
“A woman gave her running shoes a couple of hours ago and left barefoot,” said Brown, an elderly Bostonian in a baseball cap.
Among the flowers, written prayers and words of support stand three white crosses, in memory of the dead – eight-year-old boy Martin Richard; Chinese graduate student Lu Lingzi and restaurant manager Krystle Campbell.
Brown explains that the crosses were brought by a man who said he had driven all the way from the western state of Colorado.
“I am really moved by all the solidarity coming from all around the world and it help me recovering,” he said.
Also on Monday, the governor and Roman Catholic Cardinal Sean O’Malley were among the mourners at St Joseph Church at the first funeral for Campbell. The 29-year-old restaurant manager had gone to watch a friend finish the race.
Patrick also attended a memorial service for a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from Shenyang, China who was also killed. Lu was described as a sweet-hearted woman passionate about piano and her studies.
Amid a swirl of emotions in Boston, there was cause for some celebration: Doctors announced that everyone injured in the blasts who made it to a hospital alive now seems likely to survive.
That includes several people who arrived with legs attached by just a little skin, a three-year-old boy with a head wound and bleeding on the brain, and a little girl riddled with nails.
As of Monday, 51 people remained hospitalised, three of them in critical condition. At least 14 people lost all or part of a limb; three of them lost more than one.
FBI investigators are still hoping to get answers from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, about the brothers’ possible motive, and learn whether other attacks were in the works.
His older brother, Tamerlan, 26, died on Friday after a fierce gunbattle with police.