Boston bomb suspects ‘planned Times Square attack’

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators from his hospital bed that he and his older brother had decided spontaneously to drive to New York and launch an attack, said New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

They had five pipe bombs and a pressure-cooker explosive like the ones that blew up at the marathon in their stolen SUV, Mr Kelly added.

But the Tsarnaev brothers became embroiled in a shootout just outside Boston that left Tamerlan,26, dead.

“We don’t know if we would have been able to stop the terrorists had they arrived here from Boston,” said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “We’re just thankful that we didn’t have to find out that answer.”

The attack on the Boston marathon killed three people and injured over 260 on 16 April.

Dzhokhar, 19, is charged with carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing and he could face the death penalty.

Dzhokhar was interrogated in his hospital room over a period of 16 hours without being read his constitutional rights, according to officials quoted in the US media. He immediately went silent after a magistrate judge and a representative from the US Attorney’s office entered the room and advised him of his rights to keep quiet and seek a lawyer, say reports.

The police commissioner said that Dzhokhar had visited Times Square twice before.

Meanwhile at an emotional press conference in the Russian republic of Dagestan, the suspects’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev, said he planned to go to the US to bury his older son. “I don’t have any bad intentions – I don’t plan to blow up anything,” he said.

The suspects’ mother Zubeidat said that her sons were innocent and that she regretted ever emigrating to the US.