Boston Marathon Bombing: Authorities Urge Spectators to Sent Photos, Videos

Apr 16, 2013 09:09 AM EDT

Authorities pleaded Tuesday to the spectators who have been watching the marathon to send videos and photos that they've taken as leads for investigation of who caused the two bombs that exploded Monday near the Boston Marathon finish line, killing three and injuring more than 176 people.

“There has to be hundreds, if not thousands, of photographs, videos and other observations that were made down at that finish line yesterday,” said Timothy Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, according to NBC News. “You might not think it’s significant, but it might have some value to this investigation.”

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the New York Times that a man of Saudi descent is being held by law enforcement officials as a person of interest, but “don’t’ know how significant that Saudi is, and they really have not –as far as I know – come up with anything new.”

“I would say the combination of the explosive devices, even the ones that didn’t detonate, often you can find a signature from that or where the components were purchased and all the video cameras have to yield something,” King said, according to New York Times.

A doctor from Massachusetts General Hospital told the press that patients at that hospital were between 28 and 71 years old.

He said the hospital treated 31 injured people. There were four separate patients who needed amputations at the hospital, and two other whose limbs are still at risk.

People are being treated for a “variety of sharp objects,” he said. Metallic objects were found in bodies.

President Obama has ordered flags at all federal sites lowered to half-staff until April 20 as a mark of respect for the victims of the “senseless act of violence perpetrated on Monday.