Pressure Cookers, Ball Bearings Used In Boston Attacks
The bombs used in twin deadly blasts during yesterday’s Boston Marathon attacks were made of pressure cookers filled with ball bearings, authorities have confirmed.
Initial reports of injuries sustained during the Boston bombings indicated that surgeons and trauma physicians were observing shrapnel and ball bearings in victim wounds, and the practice of using similar materials in homemade explosives to maximize casualties is not uncommon.
Massachusetts General Hospital trauma chief Dr. George Velmahos has commented on the shrapnel being recovered from bombing victims, saying it seems clear that the fragments originated from the bomb itself and not something else in the vicinity — he explains that many of those treated were “almost automatic amputees,” and adds:
“My opinion is that most of [the fragments such as ball bearings] were in the bomb … I think it’s unlikely they would be so consistent if they were pulled out from the environment.”
Dr. Velmahos admits that in many instances, doctors were only able to “finish what the bomb started.”
Dr. Ron Walls of Brigham and Woman’s Hospital indicated that inside the pressure cooker bombs were items that “clearly were designed to be projectiles that were built into the device.”
The Associated Press corroborated doctors’ observations by quoting an unnamed source linked to the investigation:
BREAKING: Person briefed on probe: Boston explosives made of pressure cookers with metal, ball bearings -MM
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 16, 2013
MORE: Explosives at Boston Marathon were in pressure cookers inside duffel bags, a person briefed on probe says. apne.ws/15io9WY
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 16, 2013
According to several unconfirmed reports, the pressure cookers used to build the homemade improvised explosive devices used in the Boston Marathon bombing were 6-qt units.
