Dzhokhar Tsarnaev captured alive after hiding in a boat in David Henneberry’s backyard in Watertown

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Suspect 2 in the Boston Marathon bombings, has been captured alive in Watertown and taken into custody, police have said.

Gunfire was heard as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was reportedly found hiding in a boat in a backyard in Watertown.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, had escaped on foot early on Friday after a police shootout that claimed the life of his elder brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Three people died and more than 180 were hurt in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings.

Boston Police Department tweeted: “CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody.”

A law enforcement official told the Associated Press news agency that suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was covered in blood.

Police helicopters buzzed overhead, and bomb squad vans and ambulances were in position around the house in Franklin Street in Watertown on Friday night.

CNN reported that a family of ten were removed from the scene and officers were seen carrying children.

The home reportedly belongs to Mr. Henneberry and Elizabeth Henneberry, a couple in their mid-sixties.

At one stage a series of about 15 explosions erupted, which local television channels speculated could have been flash-bang grenades used by the authorities.

A local resident, Anna Bedirian, told Reuters news agency: “There’s about 50 guys there with machine guns and they all got bulletproof vests on, some of them are holding shields.

“There are a couple of armored cars and they’re all standing around.”

Friday night’s breakthrough came less than an hour after authorities lifted a city-wide order for residents to stay indoors, and reopened the transport system, as the trail appeared to have gone cold.

Thousands of SWAT team officers scoured the streets all day in a manhunt that virtually shut down the city.

Officials had shut down all mass transit and warned close to one million people in Boston and some of its suburbs not to leave their homes.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a college student, had fled on foot following a gun battle that left 200 spent rounds and a car chase in which he and his brother hurled explosives at police, authorities said.

Brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev also shot and killed an MIT policeman and severely wounded another officer late on Thursday, authorities said, hours after the FBI released images of marathon-bombing suspects.

Law enforcement officials and family members have identified Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev as ethnic Chechens who had been living in America for about a decade.

The FBI interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 after a request from a foreign government, US law enforcements officials have confirmed. But agents closed the case after finding no reason for concern.

Boston Marathon attack killed Martin Richard, 8, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Lu Lingzi, 23, a postgraduate student from China.

Authorities have taken three people into custody in connection with the Boston bombings in New Bedford, Massachusetts, 65 miles south of the city, the Boston Globe reports. It is unknown how they were connected to the case.