(CNN) -- [Breaking news update at 2:44 p.m. Wednesday]
Investigators in Washington and Boston denied Wednesday that an arrest had been made in the bombing of the Boston Marathon. They had earlier said there was "substantial" progress in the case.
[Breaking news update at 2:36 p.m. Wednesday]
There is conflicting information as to whether someone has been arrested in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings. A federal law enforcement source told CNN's Fran Townsend that someone was arrested. But later, two senior administration officials and another federal official told Townsend that there had been a misunderstanding among officials and that no one has been arrested.
Report: US sources say Boston bombing suspect arrested
According to CNN, authorities nab suspect in Boston Marathon bombings based on security video that showed a man depositing a bag at the scene before the blasts; crime scene photos show charred, twisted remains of device.
BOSTON - Citing US and Boston law enforcement sources, CNN reported on Wednesday that authorities have arrested a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings based on security video that showed a man depositing a bag at the scene before the blasts.
A US law enforcement source told Reuters that a suspect had been identified and that a formal announcement would be made later in the day.
The developments are the biggest publicly-disclosed breaks since Monday's blast at the marathon finish line killed three people and injured 176 others. Investigators were searching through thousands of pieces of evidence from cell phone pictures to shrapnel shards pulled from victims' legs.
Based on shards of metal, fabric, wires and a battery recovered at the scene, the focus turned to whoever may have made bombs in pressure cooker pots and taken them in heavy black nylon bags to the finish line of the world-famous race watched by crowds of spectators.
A stretch of Boston's Boylston Street almost a mile long and blocks around it remained closed as investigators searched for clues in the worst attack on US soil since the hijacked plane strikes of Sept. 11, 2001.
Cities across the United States were on edge after Monday's blasts in Boston. Adding to the nervousness was the announcement that mail containing a suspicious substance addressed to a lawmaker and to President Barack Obama. The FBI said, however, that agents had found no link the attack in Boston.
The blasts at the finish line of Monday's race injured 176 people and killed three: an 8-year old boy, Martin Richard, a 29-year-old woman, Krystle Campbell and a Boston University graduate student who was a Chinese citizen.
Boston University identified the student as Lu Lingzi.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
"Whether it's homegrown, or foreign, we just don't know yet. And so I'm not going to contribute to any speculation on that," said US Secretary of State John Kerry, who until January was Massachusetts' senior senator. "It's just hard to believe that a Patriots' Day holiday, which is normally such time of festivities, turned into bloody mayhem."
FBI asks witnesses for photos
The FBI was leading the investigation and asking witnesses to submit any photos of the blast site -- which was crowded with tens of thousands of spectators, race staff and volunteers and runners. Many of them have turned in thousands of images, authorities said.
"Probably one of the best ways to get a lead is to go through those images and track down people coming and going with backpacks," said Randy Law, an associate professor of history at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama and author of "Terrorism: A History."
"It's the needle in the haystack but when you have the resources that the local and federal authorities have, they can go through what I'm sure will be thousands and thousands of photos and hours of videos. You can find something occasionally," Law said.
The head of trauma surgery at Boston Medical Center, which was still treating 19 victims on Wednesday, said his hospital was collecting the shards of metal, plastic, wood and concrete they had pulled from the injured to save for law enforcement inspectors. Other hospitals were doing the same.
"We've taken on large quantities of pieces," Dr. Peter Burke of Boston Medical Center told reporters "We send them to the pathologists and they are available to the police."
Nylon fragments, ball bearings and nails
Bomb scene pictures produced by the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force and released on Tuesday show the remains of an explosive device including twisted pieces of a metal container, wires, a battery and what appears to be a small circuit board.
One picture shows a few inches of charred wire attached to a small box, and another depicts a half-inch (1.3 cm) nail and a zipper head stained with blood. Another shows a Tenergy-brand battery attached to black and red wires through a broken plastic cap. Several photos show a twisted metal lid with bolts.
The nickel metal hydride battery typically is used by remote-controlled car enthusiasts, said Benjamin Mull, a vice president at Tenergy Corp. The batteries, made in Shenzhen, China, are sold on the internet and in hundreds of outlets.
People at the company "were shocked and appalled" when they learned their battery had been used in the blast, he said.
Security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said instructions for building pressure-cooker bombs similar to the ones used in Boston can be found on the Internet and are relatively primitive.
Pressure cookers had also been discovered in numerous foiled attack plots in both the US and overseas in recent years, including the failed Times Square bombing attempt on May 1, 2010, the officials said.
Live blog: Conflicting reports on arrest in Boston bombings
- After law enforcement sources told CNN that an arrest was made in Boston Marathon bombings, two senior administration officials and another federal official told CNN contributor Fran Townsend that no arrest happened.
- The bombs, which exploded 12 seconds apart near Boston Marathon finish line Monday, killed three people and wounded 183.
- Full story here; also, see CNN affiliates WBZ; WCVB; WHDH
[Updated at 2:33 p.m. ET] There is conflicting information as to whether someone has been arrested in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings.
A federal law enforcement source told CNN's Fran Townsend that someone was arrested. But two senior administration officials and another federal official then told Townsend that there had been a misunderstanding among officials and that no one has been arrested.
[Updated at 2:23 p.m. ET] As news of an arrest spreads, a crowd has been gathering outside a federal courthouse in Boston.
[Updated at 2:10 p.m. ET] The last we heard, a law enforcement news briefing in the bombings case was scheduled for 5 p.m. ET today. We'll see if that holds.
Earlier today, CNN's John King reported that authorities had identified a suspect based on an analysis of video from a Lord & Taylor department store near the site of the second blast, and that video from a Boston TV station also helped. King cited a source who was briefed on the investigation.
[Updated at 2 p.m. ET] The arrest is based on two videos showing images of the suspect, a federal law enforcement source told CNN contributor Fran Townsend.
[Updated at 1:46 p.m.] An arrest has been made in connection with Monday's Boston Marathon bombings, sources tell CNN's John King and CNN contributor Fran Townsend. King's source is with Boston law enforcement, he said; Townsend's source is with federal law enforcement.
[Updated at 1:44 p.m.] While we wait for more information about the possible suspect, some recent information to pass on about one of the three people who were killed in Monday's blasts: Boston University said Lingzi Lu, a graduate student in mathematics and statistics, was killed.
She and two friends were watching the race near the finish line when the blasts erupted, BU Today reported. The second student was in stable condition at Boston Medical Center; the third student was not hurt, it said.
The university said that it had the family's permission to identify Lingzi Lu.
[Posted at 1:40 p.m.] Authorities may have had a breakthrough in the investigation of Monday's Boston Marathon bombings. Investigators believe they have identified a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, a source who has been briefed on the investigation told CNN's John King exclusively.
The breakthrough came from analysis of video from a department store near the site of the second explosion. Video from a Boston television station also contributed to the progress, said the source, who declined to be more specific but called it a significant development.
Earlier, a federal law enforcement source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation told CNN that a lid to a pressure cooker thought to have been used in the bombings had been found on a roof of a building near the scene
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