A teenager suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings is in custody after a local resident found him hiding in a boat in his backyard.
Police said they exchanged gunfire with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, after cornering him in Watertown, near Boston.
He had escaped on foot early on Friday, apparently wounded, after a police shootout that claimed the life of his elder brother, an alleged accomplice.
Three people died and more than 170 were wounded in Monday's bombings.
As news emerged that the teenaged suspect was being treated in hospital, US President Barack Obama promised to seek answers on what had motivated the bombers and whether they had help.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found after a day of lockdown on Boston's streets and a night of bloodshed that had claimed the life of a police officer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Sean Collier, 26, was fatally shot in Cambridge late on Thursday. Then, after a car was hijacked, a gun battle began further west, in Watertown.
A transport police officer was seriously hurt and one of the brothers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was fatally injured.
He had died of bullet wounds and injuries from explosives strapped to his body, a hospital doctor said.
As thousands of Swat team officers scoured the streets for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Boston and its suburbs were brought to a standstill, with residents told to stay indoors.
Despite house-to-house searches in the Watertown area, nothing was found and the trail appeared to have gone cold.
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| The Tsarnaev Brothers |
It was not until 19:00 local time (23:00 GMT), an hour after the city-wide lockdown order was lifted and the transport system had reopened, that the breakthrough came.
A resident of Franklin Street, Watertown, emerged from his home and noticed blood near a boat in his backyard.
Upon opening the tarpaulin covering the boat, he found a man covered in blood in the stern and called police.
Bomb-squad vans and ambulances surrounded the house, while helicopters buzzed overhead.
"The hostage rescue team did try to talk him out but from what I understand, he was not communicative," Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told reporters.
Officers tossed flash-bang grenades into the boat to disorient the fugitive.
Police said they exchanged gunfire with the suspect for about an hour before moving in and seizing him. Images show the teenager climbing out of the boat and then lying on his back as he is searched by police.
A crowd near the scene cheered as he was taken into custody.
Boston Police Department tweeted: "CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody."
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken to a Massachusetts hospital, bleeding and seriously injured with gunshot wounds to the neck and leg, police told reporters.
Source: BBC News
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