Two Tri-City residents participating in the Boston Marathon on Monday said they had crossed the finish line three minutes before the explosions went off.
Port Coquitlam runners Angela and Gordon Spooner said in an email that they feared more explosions could detonate and quickly left the finish line area following the blast.
"The course was shutdown shortly following," she wrote in an email to The Tri-City News. "People are stunned by the sounds of the explosions and the smoke."
The Spooners are two of 11 runners from the Tri-Cities who joined 27,000 people from around the world in the annual marathon. More than 2,000 participants are Canadian citizens.
For now, the Spooners said they will be staying in their hotel as they try and process what has happened to them.
"We are just lying low in our rental condo here and trying to come to terms with the reality of what has happened here in Boston as we hear sirens and helicopters around us," she wrote. "Walking back to our condo, people and runners were visibly upset and crying. We had no idea as to what had happened.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to those injured and to the other runners, who would be mostly the charity runners in the third wave coming through."
Nine other participants had registered to run in the race, according to the Boston Marathon's website. They are Ofelia Kerr, Courtney Powell, Tracey Price, Lisa Rossetto, Rob Stagg and Jeremy Waters of Coquitlam, Dolores Ramos of Port Coquitlam and Rhonda Gallant and Paula Vanni of Port Moody.
Paul Slaymaker, owner of the Runner's Den in Port Moody, said Vanni had been in one of the store's training clinics.
"She's already finished, thank goodness," Slaymaker said. "She probably finished a couple of hours before [the blasts] went off."
The CBC is reporting that two people were killed and 22 more were injured in the blast, which occurred at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
According to Boston police, the blasts took place approximately two hours after the winners crossed the finish line.
The near-simultaneous blasts struck about 90 metres apart, knocking some spectators off their feet.
CTV News reports paramedics rushed to treat the injured; some bloody, others reportedly missing limbs.
LINKS
Friends and relatives of Canadians believed to be affected by the Boston Marathon explosions who need assistance, can contact @TravelGoC, 1-800-387-3124 or email [email protected].
If you are concerned for a friend or family member who ran the Boston Marathon today, you can see their last check-in here: raceday.baa.org/individual.html.
Google has a people finder: http://google.org/personfinder/2013-boston-explosions.
Marathon runners who are safe and families looking for loved ones can visit the Red Cross: http://safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php.
If you are looking for missing persons related to the explosions, call the Mayor's Missing Person's hotline at 1-617-635-4500.
