"Somebody's leg flew by my head," said a horrified eye-witness to the carnage following the twin bombings at Boston Marathon that left three people dead and over 140 injured.
John Ross, a spectator, said: "Somebody's leg flew by my head."
"I gave my belt to stop the blood," bostonherald.com quoted him as saying.
Alicia Shambo, a former US Navy medic, who was at the finish line of the Marathon, said that the "extent of the injuries is just horrible".
"Extremities just dangling."
Said an army veteran who was running the Marathon: "I've lived through Afghanistan five times and Iraq twice. I can't believe it happened here."
Stephen J. Murphy, who too was at the finish line, recalled: "I heard an explosion and then another one 15 seconds later. I saw a guy coming towards me with blood on his face."