On the morning that Lu Lingzi set off to watch the marathon with her friends, she posted what would be a final photograph on her microblog. “My wonderful breakfast,” wrote the girl from Shenyang in English on Sina Weibo — China’s Twitter — describing a picture showing an unremarkable bowl of fruit. It was a typically joyful post from someone enjoying every aspect of life in the US. Hours later she was dead.

Ms Lu had been studying for a master’s degree in statistics at Boston University. Despite efforts by her family and Beijing to conceal her identity, netizens quickly worked out who she was. The state-owned Shenyang Evening News identified her as the third victim of Monday’s horrors. Her friend, Zhou Danling, is badly