19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is rushed to hospital following the shooutout The teenage suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings is in custody after being found hiding in a boat in a suburban homeowner's 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.
"Captured!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody," the Boston police department said on Twitter after Tsarnaev was taken away to applause from relieved residents.
Hundreds of people later descended into the streets of Boston to celebrate, chanting: "USA! USA!" Some climbed onto car roofs while others danced in the streets.
A neighbour alerted police after finding Tsarnaev "covered with blood" in the boat where he had taken refuge, Boston police chief Ed Davis told reporters.
The University of Massachusetts student was surrounded by a small army of police for a final showdown which lasted nearly two hours. Attempts to negotiate with him failed as he was "not communicating," Davis said.
"We exchanged gunfire with the suspect who was inside the boat, and ultimately, the hostage rescue team of the FBI made an entry into the boat and removed the suspect," Davis told a press conference.
Following his capture, Tsarnaev was taken to hospital, where he was in serious condition.
"We will determine what happened. We will investigate any associations that these terrorists may have had. And we'll continue to do whatever we have to do to keep our people safe," President Barack Obama said after the capture.
It was not immediately clear when Tsarnaev would be formally charged. US Attorney Carmen Ortiz declined to comment on possible charges he would face, saying the investigation was ongoing.
The arrest ended a dramatic four days after two bombs exploded at the marathon finish line, killing three people and wounding about 180 in the worst attack on the United States since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan were named as the main suspects. They were also at the centre of a violent spree in which one policeman was killed and a second officer wounded.
Investigators at first struggled to identify the attackers, but a major breakthrough came when the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday released video and picture images of the Tsarnaev brothers as they walked in Boylston Street where the attacks took place.
Within hours of that press conference, the brothers embarked on a final rampage through the Boston suburbs.
Police launched a huge manhunt on Friday with 9,000 police surrounding Watertown and parts of nearby districts hoping to isolate the teenager, who was believed wounded in the shootout in which his brother was killed.
Boston ground to a standstill as authorities halted all public transport, ordered schools and universities closed and told people in most of the region to stay in their homes.
The Tsarnaev brothers are ethnic Chechen Muslims who moved to the United States about a decade ago.
Their social media pages appeared to express sympathy with the struggle of Chechnya, which has been ravaged by two wars since 1994 between Russia and increasingly Islamist-leaning separatist rebels.
The suspects' father Anzor Tsarnaev told Russia's Interfax news agency his sons had been "set up by the secret services because they are practicing Muslims." But an uncle, Ruslan Tsarni said the pair had put "shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity."
Boston has held emotional tributes to the dead - eight-year-old Martin Richard, Boston University graduate student Lu Lingzi of China and Krystle Campbell, a restaurant manager.
More than 100 of the wounded have left Boston hospitals and fewer than 10 remain in critical condition.