Boston Marathon victims include two brothers who each lost a leg

Family photo via Facebook

JP and Paul Norden each lost a leg in Monday's bombings at the Boston Marathon.

By Tracy Connor and Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News

Those wounded in the Boston Marathon bomb attack included two brothers who went to cheer on a friend, and each lost a leg, their mother told the Boston Globe.

Liz Norden told the newspaper she was home when she got a call on her cellphone from her younger son, Paul, who was in an ambulance.

"Ma, I'm hurt real bad," the 31-year-old told Norden.

He said his older brother, J.P., was standing next to him when one of the two bombs went off just before 3 p.m. on Monday, but he didn't know what happened to him.

It wasn't long before Norden found out: the 33-year-old had also lost a leg in the explosion, she said.

“I have two sons in two different hospitals,” the mom told NBC News. “I am just so heartbroken.”

The brothers, both roofers who had recently been laid off, were at the marathon to support their friend, firefighter Mike Jefferson.

“I was a quarter-mile away from the finish line,” Jefferson told the Globe.

One brother was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess; the other to Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Paul’s girlfriend was at a third hospital with serious burns and other injuries, the mother said.

Metrowest Daily News/Ken Mcgagh / Reuters

Bystanders tend to an injured man following explosions at the Boston Marathon on Monday. Simultaneous explosions ripped through the crowd at the finish line, killing at least three people and injuring more than 170.

Three people were killed in Monday's twin bombings, which also injured at least 176 people. Authorities have not yet named a suspect in the attack.

Among those killed was 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester, Mass., who was watching the race with his family, NBC affiliate WHDH reported. Martin's 6-year-old sister lost her leg in the blast; his mother suffered a serious brain injury and had surgery late Monday night, WHDH said.

"The kids were all up on the barrier," said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., who told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he spoke to Martin's father, William, after the bombings. "They had their feet up on the pegs, trying to get a higher view. ... So they were all focused forward and the blast came from the back and the side."

The family also has a son in the fifth grade who was not injured, according to WHDH.

William Martin, the father, is a runner but was not running in yesterday's marathon and was not injured, Lynch told MSNBC. The family was there to support friends who were in the race.