Three Westmeath runners in Boston marathon

Three runners with Westmeath addresses were listed among those who participated in the bomb-struck marathon race held in Boston on Monday.

Sean Gillen, aged 25, and Polish couple Sylwia Kasperska (34) and Arthur Kasperski (35), all from Athlone, were among the 50 runners with Irish addresses who took part in the event, in which three people died, and as a result of which as many as thirty others have suffered limb amputations.  Some 144 people were injured, 17 of them critically.
None of those injured are believed to have been Irish.
In total, 108 people with Irish citizenship took part in the race, the 117th such run in Boston.
Alarm spread through the spectators and participants when two bombs exploded, just 12 seconds and 100 yards apart, close to the finish line, and timed, officials believed, to go off when a lot of the slower runners would be due back in - around four hours after the race started.
Newspaper pictures showed the pavements badly stained with blood, and injured people lying on the paths receiving comfort from friends or treatment by emergency personnel.