Runners complete Boston Marathon cut short by bomb attack in April
Marathon goes ahead as crowds line streets in show of strength after April's tragedy
Thousands of runners and supporters have taken to the streets of Boston to complete a marathon that many were forced to abandon last month after bombs exploded near the finish line.
A pack of runners carried three US flags and one Chinese flag, raising their arms defiantly as their feet pounded the rain-soaked pavement.
Two of the victims of the twin bombing were American, and a third was a Chinese student named Lu Lingzi. The bombers are accused of killing a fourth person, an MIT police officer, days later as they attempted to evade arrest.
Saturday's run, organised by local runners and businesses and publicised over social media, was billed as "OneRun," with the slogan, "We'll get our finish".
"Boston will run strong. Boston will run together. Boston will run as one," organisers said ahead of the event.
Some 3,000 people participated, newspaper reported.
Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in police custody. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed during a shootout with police on April 19 after investigators linked him to the bombings. The brothers allegedly carried out the attack and later led police on a chase.
On Wednesday an FBI agent shot and killed a man believed to have ties to Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The man, Ibragim Todashev, told officials before he was shot that he and Tsarnaev had killed three people in 2011 in Massachusetts.
The shooting took place in Orlando, Florida, while the agents and two Massachusetts police officers were interviewing Todashev as part of their investigation of the bombing. An FBI spokesman said Todashev was killed after he reacted violently.
Todashev was not a suspect in the April 15 marathon bombing.
