While the city of Boston is locked down as countless authorities pursue Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, one of two living suspects from Monday’s bombings of the Boston Marathon, a University of Maine undergraduate student witnessed the ordeal first hand, locked down in a hotel in Cambridge.

Fourth-year psychology student and Vice President of Student Organizations Sarah Porter was just a couple blocks away from the early morning shootout that took the life of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was wanted by authorities in connection with the bombing at the finish line of the marathon. The bombing claimed the lives of three, injured over 170 and maimed a number of runners and spectators. Tsarnaev is currently on the run from authorities.

“I was at a bar with friends and my parents were coming to meet up with me so we could head back [to our hotel] when the actual shooting happened,” Porter said over the phone Friday afternoon. “It was mayhem, cab drivers were frantic.

“I was on the street, a couple of blocks away at the time and a cab pulled over and said to get in for safety,” she continued. “We’re just a couple blocks from where the shoot out happened. We’re right near [Massachusetts Institute of Technology].

Porter said the cabs pulled over just minutes after the shooting. She didn’t realize it was gunshots at the time, and everyone in the area was confused. She said the area she was in was busy.

Porter traveled to Boston to see her parents and brother, who attended a Fleetwood Mac concert Thursday night. She said her family booked the trip a while ago and knew there’d be an up in security, but that didn’t deter her plans.

“We knew it was going to be a little different with heavier security,” Porter said. “But we didn’t think anything out of the ordinary would happen while we were here.”

Porter and her family are staying at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, overlooking the Galleria Mall, which Porter called “a ghost town.”

“We’re right next to the Galleria Mall and this area is always crazy traffic and busy, busy,” she said. “We just can’t get over that there is no one outside.”

In a text message a little before 2 p.m., Porter said the hotel told them they could leave soon if they wanted to.

“We called down from our hotel and they said no one had left,” she said. “They were just real busy downstairs. No one knows what to do.”

Porter said she and her family were getting ready to leave and do some sightseeing, but with the developing situation in the city, they decided to see how things work out.

“We were getting ready to leave right now and head to a nearby town, but we haven’t tried to leave yet,” she said. “It’s literally a ghost town. I don’t know — it’s pretty surreal.”

Porter and her family left the hotel in their car at around a 2:45 p.m. but they are remaining in Boston for the night.

“We just wanted to get out of the area for a while,” Porter said.

Late Thursday night, the Tsarnaev brothers are believed to have been behind the fatal shooting of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier.

According to authorities, the two then hijacked a vehicle at gunpoint, telling the driver they were responsible for the marathon bombing. Police caught up with the brothers and fatally shot Tamerlan Tsarnaev as he got out of the car. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev fled from the scene in the car.

This morning, Connecticut state police issued an alert saying the suspect may be driving a 1999 green Honda Civic with Massachusetts plates 116 GC7.

Derrick Rossignol contributed to this story.