Boston bomber's grave 'could be anti-US shrine'

Dozens of US cemeteries refused to accept Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body (AP)

The Boston-marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been buried in a rural cemetery in Virginia, infuriating some members of the area's Muslim community who say they weren't consulted, and startling local officials who said they hadn't been informed. The officials said they are concerned about the site becoming a shrine to anti-US sympathisers.

The interment this week at a small Islamic cemetery ended a frustrating search for a community willing to take the body, which had been kept in Massachusetts, as cemeteries in several states refused to accept it. Tsarnaev was killed on 19 April after a gun battle with police. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, remains in custody. The ethnic Chechens from Russia are accused of setting off two bombs on 15 April, near the marathon finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 260.

Dozens of communities had refused to take the body; many had concerns about vandalism of the site and a backlash from the public. The cemetery is hidden among rural woods and hills, about 30 miles north of Richmond, and contains only 47 graves. All were covered with reddish-brown mulch except for two that appeared newly dug, neither with any kind of marking and one of them presumably Tsarnaev's. On one of the new graves lay a vase full of roses at one end, with a single red rose at the other. The other new grave was bare.

Video: Boston Bomb victim speaks out