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The Lord and Taylor store on Boylston Street. (
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The Boston federal courthouse was evacuated today as hundreds of reporters were lined up inside and around the building in expectation of an arrest in the Boston Marathon terror attack.
A Post reporter was on the seventh floor of the courthouse when a Code Red alert came over the speaker and everyone was told to leave the building.
A local reporter was asked how often this occurred and said, “I’ve never heard of this happening before. Virtually never.”
K9 units were seen entering the building as officers shouted for people assembled outside to “get back across the street.”
A Code Red is the highest alert for the building and signifies a significant event, such as a bomb threat or a fire. It is unclear at this time time what the threat is. An official at the courthouse called the Code Red “very serious.”
Cops at the scene was instructing reporters to move more than 100 yards away from the building.
When asked if there was a bomb a cop responded, “Does evacuate 100 yards mean anything to you? Move!”
MyFoxBoston reported that a bomb threat has been called into the building and federal officials, including Homeland Security agents and US Marshals were at the scene.
A daycare inside the courthouse was also evacuated.
Authorities are working to identify the Boston Marathon terror attack suspect, though there are conflicting reports about the man’s arrest.
Investigators allegedly identified the suspect through security video shot from a nearby department store, local and federal law enforcement sources told CNN.
Footage from Lord & Taylor, on the same Boylston Street block torn apart by blasts Monday, led investigators to a man believed to have planted the second bomb, according to the network.
Federal officials denied there had been any arrests yet in connection to Monday’s bombings.
The Associated Press, earlier today, quoted a law enforcement saying a suspect was in custody. CNN, citing Boston and federal sources, reported a suspect had been arrested.
But the FBI and federal prosecutors in Boston insisted no suspect had been taken into custody.
Gov. Deval Patrick called for patience, and said authorities are still a long way from arresting the killer or killers who pulled off Monday’s bombings.
“This is going to take some time, a lot of time,” Patrick told CNN tonight.
“Particularly given that there hasn’t been an individual or group that’s claimed responsibility. I think the things we’re going to need from the public is patience – patience at a time when we’re impatient for an answer.”
The Boston Globe has reported that authorities have an image of a suspect carrying, and possibly dropping, a bag at the second bombing scene, just outside the Forum restaurant.
The alleged bomber was on a phone when he dropped the second backpack and his cell records reportedly led to the identification, sources told CBS News.
Authorities revealed yesterday the bomber used a pair of six-liter pressure cookers packed with metal nails and ball bearings to rip his helpless victims apart at the finish line.
The terrorist put the pots in black nylon bags, and, perhaps, put those bags into light-colored bags, and placed them at viewing areas on Boylston Street, where the blasts killed three and wounded more than 170.
Each bomb was a crude device equipped with a timer, said a law-enforcement source.
A photo obtained by Boston’s 7News, taken about an hour before the blast, suggests one of the hidden bombs was placed inside a light-colored bag next to a mailbox. A follow-up picture taken at the same spot captures the aftermath of the explosion.
The station, which turned the photos over to the FBI, said it blurred part of the second image because it was so graphic.
This morning, the lid of a pressure cooker was found on a roof near the scene, a federal law enforcement official told CNN.
Hundreds of federal agents and Boston cops painstakingly collected and documented every item strewn about after two bombs exploded about 10 seconds and up to 100 yards apart along Boylston Street Monday.
Gov. Patrick said it’s still unclear if this attack was carried out by domestic or foreign terrorists.
“I don’t think anybody knows that,” he said. “It’s going to take some time. In many, many ways this is about sifting through [mass amounts of evidence], like finding a needle in a haystack.”
With Post Wire Services