Boston heaves sigh of relief as bombings suspect captured

Boston, April 20: A 19-year-old ethnic Chechen suspected of carrying out the deadly Boston Marathon bombings with his older brother was captured on Saturday after an intense 24-hour manhunt that locked down the city, ending a five-day nightmare.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, suspected to be behind the twin blasts at the Boston Marathon on Monday was arrested after an exchange of gunfire with the police.

He was captured from a boat, where he was hiding.

"We used a robot to pull the tarp off the boat," David Procopio of the Massachusetts State Police said.

A gunfight ensued, with more than 20 rounds fired. Dzhokhar, who was bleeding, was taken to a hospital and was in serious condition, the police said.

"Captured!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody," Boston police department said on Twitter after Dzhokar was arrested.

The arrest was later celebrated by hundreds of people, who descended on to the streets of Boston chanting, "USA! USA!" His capture ended an unprecedented day-long siege of Greater Boston, after a frantic night of violence that left one Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) police officer dead, an MBTA Transit Police officer wounded, and an embattled public rattled by the touch of terrorism locked inside homes.

The arrest also ended a five-day long drama after twin bombs, inside pressure cookers, went off in quick succession amidst thousands of people near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 180 others.

Tsarnaev's 26-year-old brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the second suspect in the attack, was pronounced dead on Friday after suffering shrapnel and bullet wounds in a gunfight with police.

Dzhokhar was injured when the police shot dead his brother.

Dzhokhar had managed to escape from the scene.