The body of one of the Chechen-born Boston Marathon bombing suspects, who died in a gun battle with police after an intense manhunt, has been claimed by his family amid scenes of protests by anguished local residents.
When the hearse carrying the remains of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, the older of the two Boston Marathon bombing suspects, arrived at the Dyer Lake Funeral Home in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, residents came out to boo him, The Sun Chronicle, a local newspaper reported.
Others took to social media to protest his presence.
The body was transported to another location hours later, the paper reported, sourcing a funeral home spokesman.
Earlier, the Boston medical examiner's office said the body had been picked up.
Tsarnaev's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, who lives in Maryland, claimed his body, CNN quoted a family spokeswoman as saying.
Tsarni has publicly expressed deep shame over the attacks allegedly carried out by his nephews.
The suspects' parents in Dagestan said they will not be bringing their son's body to Russia, spokeswoman Heda Saratova said. Instead, he will lie in a cemetery in Massachusetts.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died on April 19 after a gun battle with police during which he was run over by his younger brother as he fled the scene in a vehicle, police have said.
Though he died while violently resisting arrest, the official cause of his death will not be released until his death certificate is filed with Boston's city clerk, according to Terrel Harris, spokesman for the Massachusetts office of the chief medical examiner.
After the long delay, the paperwork is expected to be completed later today.
His relatives will not bury him until an "independent" autopsy is conducted, Saratova said.
Tsarnaev and his 19-year-old younger brother, Dzhokhar, initially planned to carry out a suicide-bomb attack on American Independence Day on July 4, said a US law enforcement official. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told investigators their bombs were ready earlier than they expected and they decided to move up the date.
The bombs fashioned out of pressure cookers that detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15 killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.
So far, four people have been charged in connection with the bombing.
