Boston bomb: Chilling images of military-style ‘anti-personnel’ device that brought carnage to the marathon
New crime scene photographs of the remnants of the first bomb which detonated during Monday’s Boston marathon shows that a six-liter pressure cooker was used in at least one of the deadly charges – as experts described the devices as military-style ‘anti-personnel’ devices.
The images – released by the Joint Terrorist Task Force – show the wreckage of a stainless steel pressure cooker with an Underwriters Laboratory safety mark and an imprint that reads gas or electric, with experts describing the devices as military-style ‘anti-personnel’ devices.
Furthermore, it is being claimed the deadly devices used were designed to act like ‘homemade claymores’ – powerful, directional anti-personnel devices.
Described as using a ‘low explosive’, most likely black or smokeless powder, the bombs are reported to have exploded outwards with shrapnel at 3,300 feet per second. The lid of a pressure cooker was found on a nearby rooftop and investigators were able to pinpoint which type of cooker was used.
One brand of pressure cooker with ‘6L’ on the bottom is made by the Spanish company Fagor, which sells about 50,000 of the six-liter pots in the United States every year, according to the New York Times.
This gives investigators a real chance to narrow down their list of suspects – which they said yesterday was ‘wide open’ – and find out who is responsible for the worst attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11.
They will use every clue, from the cooker’s manufacturer and retailers to the types of nails used in the shrapnel, to try and find out from where the bomb parts were purchased and by whom.
Roy Parker, a retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives agent who developed the agency’s explosives training program, said examiners are looking at scraps of the bomb components, bags and all other forensic evidence.
He said: ‘You’re looking for a needle in a haystack, but the needle is there. If you look long enough, you’ll get stuck with it. This is not an unsolvable crime.’
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