Global News speaks with people near the Boston Marathon finish line

There were 2,083 Canadians attending the 2013 Boston Marathon according to the official race website when two explosions near the finish line resulted in several injuries Monday.

Spectators covered in blood could be seen being carried by medical officials as police tried to secure the area around the sites of the explosions.

Global News spoke with several people on the ground at the Boston Marathon when they explosions happened.

Peter Donato, organizer of Team Canada Brunch at Boston Marathon, owner of mynextrace.com based in Toronto, was in media centre when the explosions happened.

“I’m standing talking to you staring at the 20 ambulances, the medical tents, we can’t move. They’ve locked everyone down, wherever you are, they’re checking, they’ve found another bomb that they’ve diffused, so it’s pretty crazy.”

“When they went off , I was 100 yards away inside the media centre.”

Ross Bain, a Toronto resident, was running in the Boston Marathon for his first time and finished the race around 12:45pm. The explosions happened shortly before 3pm.

“I can’t imagine if I was finishing around that time or close to that time or even later than that time because what I understand is that they had to pull runners of the course and without giving them much of an explanation saying the race is cancelled. You know that would have been really bad. That’s not even to talk about the people who were injured or the families. It’s unbelievable.”

Matthew Peters, who lives in Boston, was standing in the Prudential Centre mall near the finish line when the explosions happened.

“Judging by all the running and screaming and all the shaking I felt I had assumed it was a bomb. The first explosion that went off I really didn’t know what to think, but then when the second one happened it was pretty clear that it was some sort of bomb, some sort of explosion that had gone off very close, I wasn’t sure if it was in the building itself but as soon as I got outside it was clear it happened by the finishing line. Police were clearing the area, ambulances were helping people who were on the ground and stuff like that.”