How Boston manhunt unfolded online

The hunt for the bombers behind the deadly Boston Marathon attacks didn’t take place only on the streets with professional police officers and Swat teams. In an era of digital interactivity, it also unfolded around the country from the desks of ordinary people.

Fuelled by Twitter, online forums like Reddit and 4Chan, smartphones and relays of police scanners, thousands of people played armchair detective as police searched for men who turned out to be suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechen brothers who had emigrated from southern Russia years ago.