The FBI released video surveillance images of two Boston Marathon bombing suspects Thursday, asking for the public’s help in identifying them.
Both men were captured on surveillance cameras along the marathon route. One of them was seen setting down a backpack in front of a restaurant before one of the twin bombs went off, the FBI said, but that footage was not made public.
“We consider them to be armed and extremely dangerous,” said special agent in charge of FBI's Boston field office, Richard DesLauriers. “Do not take any action on your own. If you see these men, contact law enforcement.”
In one video, the suspects were seen walking down the sidewalk, one after another, past race spectators who didn’t seem to pay any attention to them in the crowd. Both young-looking men were carrying backpacks.
Suspect 1 was wearing what appeared to be beige-coloured pants, a white T-shirt, a dark jacket and a dark baseball cap.
Suspect 2 wore a white baseball cap backwards, a dark-coloured jacket and pants.
The FBI did not release any other descriptors.
"It would be inappropriate to comment on the ethnicity of the men because it could lead people down the wrong path potentially," said FBI agent Greg Comcowich, a spokesperson for the Boston FBI office.
Anyone with information is urged to call 1-800-CALL-FBI. Images and videos of the suspects are available on the FBI’s website, www.fbi.gov.
The site crashed shortly after the announcement, as people rushed to access the images. On Reddit forums, amateur online sleuths looked for the suspects in other images from the bombing site, and tried to identify the hats worn by the suspects.
DesLauriers said the two men are the only known suspects at this time. He stressed that the public should only focus on the images released Thursday afternoon.
One tabloid newspaper in New York ran a front-page photo of two different men talking in the crowd at the marathon, saying federal officials were looking for them. That report was widely discredited on social media.
On Wednesday, several media outlets reported that a suspect had been identified from surveillance video taken at a Lord & Taylor department store located between the sites of the two bomb blasts.
DesLauriers said Thursday that the FBI initially identified a single suspect and later determined that two men may have been acting together.
Monday’s twin bombings near the marathon finish line killed three people, including an eight-year-old boy, and injured more than 170.
The explosive devices were placed inside pressure cookers and packed with nails and ball bearings – apparently designed to inflict as much damage as possible.
Dozens of the bombing victims have already been treated and released, but at least 14 others -- including three children -- remain in critical condition in hospital. Officials at three hospitals that treated some of the injured told AP they expected all of the remaining patients to survive.
More than 1,000 investigators from local and state police, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) are working on the case.
As the police continue their work, the three victims have been identified as Boston University graduate student Lu Lingzi, 8-year-old Martin Richard of Boston, and 29-year-old Krystle Campbell of Medford, Massachusetts.
With a report from CTV’s Genevieve Beauchemin and files from The Associated Press
