Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is a 'true angel

The father of the main suspect in the Boston marathon bombings has said his son, Dzhokhar Tsaaev, is a ‘true angel’ as he remains on the run from police.

Dzhokhar, 19, is the subject of a massive manhunt following a dramatic police operation in the early hours of this moing which left his older brother dead.

Tamerlan Tsaaev was killed after a gun battle with police in the Boston suburb of Watertown after a police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus was killed, sparking a series of events which led to the shootout.

This photo released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows a suspect that officials identified as Dzhokhar Tsaaev (Picture: AP)

It has been revealed that the two men were brothers of Chechen origin who moved to the US about 10 years ago and lived together in the Boston area.

The elder brother is ‘suspect number one’ who police were looking for in connection with the explosions at the marathon finish line on Monday, which left three people dead and more than 170 people injured.

Dzhokhar is ‘suspect number two’ who was referred to be police as a ‘white-capped individual’ after CCTV images of both men were circulated by the FBI.

Anzor Tsaaev spoke to The Associated Press after being informed that his sons were suspected of carrying out the attacks and had been involved in this moing’s events.

‘My son is a true angel,’ he said from the Russian city of Makhachkala.

‘Dzhokhar is a second-year medical student in the US. He is such an intelligent boy. We expected him to come on holidays here.’

SWAT teams enter a suburban neighborhood to search for the remaining suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings in Watertown, Massachusetts (Picture: Reuters)

Police have waed residents in the Boston area to stay indoors, while public transport in the city has been halted as the hunt continues for Tsaaev.

Earlier an MIT campus officer responding to a report of a disturbance was killed after suffering multiple gunshot wounds.

Police then converged on Watertown after an armed carjacking in the nearby Cambridge area.

Federal agents descend on the home of a suspect-at-large in the Boston marathon bombing and nearby Watertown shooting in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Picture: Getty Images)

The victim was held at gunpoint for approximately half an hour before being released uninjured at a petrol station, with police pursuing the vehicle into Watertown.

In the ensuing pursuit one police officer was seriously injured and the elder brother was fatally injured.

After the younger brother escaped, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told the entire city to stay indoors.

‘We believe this man to be a terrorist,’ he said.

‘We believe this to be a man who’s come here to kill people.’

All buses, subways, trolleys, commuter rail and boats remain shut down, with only planes leaving Boston from Logan airport.