Boston, Apr 20 (EFE).- After days of uncertainty and a tense manhunt lasting nearly 24 hours, a second suspect in this week's deadly Boston Marathon bombings has been captured alive.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old of Chechen origin who had hidden in a boat behind a home in the west Boston suburb of Watertown, had been at large since a shootout with authorities Thursday night that killed the first suspect - his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan.

According to Boston police, the second suspect, who is also wanted in connection with the death of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer and the wounding of a Boston transit police officer, was arrested around 8:45 Friday night in Watertown, where police had been conducting door-to-door searches throughout the day.

Several Watertown residents, who burst into applause when learning of the suspect's capture, told reporters that Tsarnaev was covered in blood, although state police told the Boston Globe he was alive and conscious.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said a person found a bloodied man inside a boat in his back yard and alerted police, who converged on the scene.

"Over the course of the next hour or so 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, who was still alive," Davis said.

The police commissioner said the suspect was believed to have been wounded in Thursday night's shootout that left his brother dead and not during the standoff in the back of the house.

Davis, however, said the suspect, who has been hospitalized, was in "serious" condition.

The arrest was the culmination of a violent series of events that began Monday with two bomb blasts near the finish line of the Boston Marathon that left three dead and 176 wounded.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother were spotted by surveillance footage and images of the two were released by the FBI, which identified them as suspects in the marathon bombing.

Then, between Thursday night and the wee hours of Friday, the two brothers allegedly shot and killed an MIT campus police officer in the Boston neighborhood of Cambridge, carjacked an SUV and became engaged in a pitched shootout with police in Watertown.

The transit police officer was critically wounded and Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in the gun battle, while Dzhokhar managed to escape in the vehicle.

A massive manhunt ensued that virtually paralyzed this northeastern city.

Also Friday, three other suspects in the marathon bombings were arrested in the Boston suburb of New Bedford.

Speaking about the violent series of events, U.S. President Barack Obama vowed late Friday to "investigate any association that these terrorists may have had, and we'll continue to do whatever we have to do to keep our people safe."

A U.S. Justice Department official told the media that a public safety exception will be invoked that will allow the FBI to interrogate the suspect without informing him of his Miranda rights - including his right to remain silent and have a lawyer present - beforehand. EFE