Indonesian Consul General in New York Ghafur Akbar Dharmaputra said here on Monday that the condition of Indonesian citizens in Boston were safe, however the consulate general continued to follow the latest developments of the Boston bombings.
Boston was rocked by two explosions on Monday. The first explosion came at about 14:50 local time (18:50 GMT) on the north side of Boylston Street, about two hours after the winners crossed the line of the Boston Marathon.
There was initial confusion and panic. Some runners fell to the floor while police and bystanders ran to help those caught in the blast.
Then seconds later, a second explosion ripped into the crowd further away from the finishing line.
The location of the explosions are near Berklee School of Music where a number of Indonesian students study there.
According to an Indonesian student studying at the Berklee of Music, Mohammad "Uga" Anugrah Swastadi, said that when the incident happened, he was at a friend`s house and knew about the blast after some family members called him.
"As far as I know that my friends are fine, although Steve and Zerlina were close to the scene during the explosions," said Uga.
Steve Aditya Winarto who is majoring in Film Scoring in Berklee said that he was walking in Newburry, a path that is parallel to Boylston when he heard the second explosion.
"When I got to the Exeter intersection, I heard the second explosion which was louder than the first one. Then I saw people were panic-stricken, running from the other direction. I did not want to take any risk, I also ran," said Steve.
Another Berklee student Zerlina Devi said that she was walking with a friend and were planning to go to the college, but they canceled the plan because they saw crowds of people watching the Boston Marathon.
Zerlina then decided to return home and stopped at a supermarket located just a few blocks from the blast sites.
"When I walked out of the supermarket, I saw a lot of people frantically running and calling their families," said Zerlina. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
