Group of Malden High Students Left Scene Only Minutes Before Bombing

A group of 15 athletes from the Malden High School track team left the finishing line at the Boston Marathon only shortly before the two bombs exploded, students said Monday night. 

The group had gone down together to check out the race, and were about a block away when the bombs ignited. 

"We're all okay," student Victoria Hannafin wrote. "A little shaken, but okay," 

Hannafin said the group was on the next street over when they heard the explosion, which they were initially told was a gas explosion. 

It was only after the group received frantic calls from friends and parents that they learned of the nature of the attacks, she said. 

"There was so much chaos," Hannafin wrote. "...People were crying and running up the street." 

"We heard the chaos and smelled the explosion," senior Abdelhak Belatreche said. "Police...were yelling and screaming at people to get off the street." 

The group later walked about two miles to the Galleria in Cambridge, where parents picked them up.