With police ordering residents to stay in their homes, Boston is a ghost town right now.

That is a story in itself.

Many folks in the city seem to realize this.

They're Tweeting out striking photos showing what a major American city under what some are calling a version of martial law.

Here is a sampling:

View from my daughter's dorm window of the Boston Common. "Empty. Like a ghost town," she says. twitter.com/cloepoisson/st… — Cloe Poisson (@cloepoisson) April 19, 2013

Downtown Crossing 10:30 am twitter.com/WBURSteve/stat… — Steve Brown (@WBURSteve) April 19, 2013

Streets in Cambridge and Somerville eerily empty. twitter.com/davabel/status… — David Abel (@davabel) April 19, 2013

Boston a ghost town. RT @nbcnews: Photo: City on lockdown; an empty Kenmore Square in Boston. (via Andrew Golden) twitter.com/NBCNews/status… — Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) April 19, 2013

Inman Square, normally one of the busiest intersections in Boston area, basically a ghost town twitter.com/Dan_Rowinski/s… — Dan_Rowinski (@Dan_Rowinski) April 19, 2013

PIC from Boston from cnn colleague RT @adamatcnn: Ghost town twitter.com/AdamATCNN/stat…

— Antonio Regalado (@antonioregalado) April 19, 2013

This is what rush hour looks like in #Boston. Empty-so eerie and quiet. #fox6wbrc twitpic.com/ckfh7r — Beth Shelburne (@bshelburne) April 19, 2013

RT @stevenerlangerDowntown Boston Friday at 9 am. Virtually deserted twitpic.com/ckf4i6Retweeted by Julia La Roche — Chris Adams (@chrisadamsmkts) April 19, 2013