One of the people killed in Monday’s Boston Marathon explosion was a Boston University graduate student, the university said this afternoon, and the Chinese Consulate in New York said the victim was a Chinese national.
Colin Riley, a BU spokesman, declined to release the student’s name, pending discussion with the family.
According to BU Today news site, the student was one of three friends who had been watching the Marathon near the race finish line. One of the three was injured and is in stable condition at Boston Medical Center, according to the university.
“She is doing well,” Robert Hill, dean of Marsh Chapel, who visited the surviving student, is quoted as saying in the BU Today site. “She has her friends around her, and she will soon have family around her.”
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The third BU student was unharmed.
The Chinese consulate said that two Chinese students were victims in the bombings. One was injured, and the second died.
The Chinese consulate in New York identified the survivor as BU student Zhou Danling. Chinese media said Zhou is a graduate of Wuhan University in central China, and is a student at BU in actuarial science.
“She cannot talk now but can communicate with pen and paper,” the consulate said in an e-mailed statement earlier Tuesday.
In that earlier statement, the consulate said another Chinese student, identified by the consulate as Ms. Lv Lingzi, was still missing. Her name has also been rendered as Lingzi Lu. No further information was available.
“We are following the case closely and are trying to reach our colleagues in Boston. I believe they will release further information on site if anything comes up,” the consulate said, adding “Our hearts goes out to all the families who had been affected.”
The AP said a working group from the Chinese Consulate was in Boston to investigate the situation and assist relatives of the victims.
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The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that relatives have requested that the deceased not be identified.
BU President Robert A. Brown sent out a letter Tuesday afternoon notifying the university community of the death. He said the university could not release the names of the student who died, nor the student who was injured.
“Our hearts and thoughts go out to the family and friends of both victims,’’ Brown said, noting that a previously scheduled vigil at 5:30 “vigil takes on a deeper and more somber significance.”
The BU student is the third fatality of Monday’s bombings, which also injured some 170 people.
Among the injured were several area college students. Three Tufts University students, seven Emerson College students, three Northeastern University students, two Boston College students, and one Berklee College of Music student were among those injured, according to the schools.