'We will find you', Obama tells Boston marathon bombers

United States President Barack Obama on Thursday condoled the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings here in an emotional inter-faith service, vowing to find those responsible for this "senseless" act as he stressed that a "bomb cannot beat us" and the nation will "finish the race."

"Yes, we will find you and yes you will face the justice. We will hold you accountable," said Obama, who arrived to lead the inter-faith service for the blasts that killed three persons and injured over 180 on Monday.

"The perpetrators of this senseless violence, these small stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build and think somehow that makes them important. That is what they don't understand. Our faith in each other, love for each other... that is our power. That is why a bomb cannot beat us, we don't hunker down... We carry on, we race," he said.

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Nearly 27,000 people were participating in the marathon, a popular running event that is held annually on the third Monday of April, when two blasts hit the cheering crowd.

Assuring the city residents that the country "stands with you," Obama said such senseless violence will not dent the resolve of the American people, who will pick themselves up and "finish the race."

"We may be momentarily knocked off our feet but we will pick ourselves us up, we will keep going and we will finish the race... I have no doubt you will run again; your resolve is the greatest rebuke to whoever committed this act."

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Obama said those sought to "intimidate us, terrorise us and shake us from our values that make us who we are as Americans, picked the wrong city."

He expressed confidence that people from across the world will return next year to participate in the marathon, undeterred by this year's tragedy.

"This time next year on the third Monday in April, the world will return to this great American city to run harder then ever and to cheer even louder for the 118th Boston marathon. Bet on it," he said as people stood up and applauded his remarks.

Obama's Republican rival in last year's presidential elections Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, was also present at the service.

The president was accompanied by his wife Michelle Obama.

Four days after the blasts, investigators are gradually piecing together evidence to identify those responsible for the attack.

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Media reports have quoted law enforcement authorities to say that they have video footage from surveillance cameras that show a suspect placing the bags carrying the bombs near the finish line of the marathon.

Investigators have found a piece of lid of one of the pressure cookers believed to have been used as the explosive device on a rooftop near the blast.

One of the two bombs that exploded near the finish line of the marathon is believed to have been hidden in a pressure cooker inside a backpack, the FBI said in a bulletin.

The device also had fragments that may have included nails and ball bearings, the agency said.

The second bomb was also hidden in a metal container, but it was not clear whether it too was in a pressure cooker, the FBI has said. 

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