BRANTFORD, Ont. -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper is congratulating American authorities for their quick work tracking down suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings.
Harper says the "rapid action" of U.S. investigators in the manhunt is helping to bring a conclusion to Monday's "terrible events."
The bombings killed three people and wounded more than 180 others, raising the spectre of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Harper says Canada stands ready to assist American officials if called upon.
Meanwhile, Canada Border Services Agency says it is on a heightened state of alert as a result of the manhunt for suspects that is underway in Boston.
Harper made the comments during a skills-training grant roundtable at an SC Johnson office in Brantford, Ont., west of Toronto.
He offered his condolences to the families of the victims of the bombings and to the family of a police officer fatally shot by one of the two bombing suspects last night.
The suspects have been identified by law enforcement officials and family members as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, brothers from a Russian region near Chechnya.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a shootout with police overnight, officials said.
His brother, a 19-year-old college student who was seen wearing a white, backward baseball cap in the images from Monday's deadly bombing at the marathon finish line -- escaped.
