Boston Suspect Shot In Face During Capture

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was shot several times including once in the face before he was captured, according to a doctor who treated him.

Previous accounts of the 20-year-old's injuries were less specific.

He was previously reported to have suffered a gunshot wound to the neck, after he was tracked down to his hideout in a boat in a Watertown back garden.

The new details come from a newly-released deposition given by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre's Dr Stephen Ray Odom three days after the April 19 arrest.

Transcripts of the testimony were unsealed on Monday.

The Boston Globe reported that Dr Odom described the most severe injury as a gunshot to the face that "appears to have entered through the left side inside of his mouth and exited the left face, lower face".

The suspect also suffered a skull fracture and various other injuries.

"This was a high-powered injury that has resulted in skull-base fracture, with injuries to the middle ear, the skull base, the lateral portion of his C1 vertebrae, with a significant soft-tissue injury, as well as injury to the pharynx, the mouth, and a small vascular injury that's been treated," Dr Odom testified.

He continued treating the younger Tsarnaev for several days after he was taken to hospital.

"He has multiple gunshots [sic] wounds to the extremities that have been treated with dressing to the lower extremities; and in the case of his left hand, he had multiple bony injuries as well that were treated with fixation and soft-tissue coverage, as well as tendon repair and vascular ligation," Dr Odom added.

Authorities say Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan masterminded the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, which left three people dead and injured more than 260 others.

Dzhokhar has pleaded not guilty to charges including using a weapon of mass destruction to kill. He is being held at a prison medical facility in Devens, Massachusetts.

Tamerlan died in a shoot-out with police. 

Massachusetts State Police photographer Sergeant Sean Murphy released more than a dozen photographs, some showing an injured Dzhokar, to Boston Magazine in July.