Federal prosecutors charged badly wounded Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in his hospital bed yesterday.

The bomb suspect was charged with one count of using a weapon of mass destruction and one count of malicious destruction of property resulting in death, the Justice Department said yesterday.

The charges authorise penalties including death, life in prison or a term in prison for any number of years, the Justice Department said in a statement.

A magistrate judge was present when Tsarnaev was charged at his bed in Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Tsarnaev was listed in serious condition.

Tsarnaev, 19, an ethnic Chechen college student suspected of carrying out the attacks with his older brother, was unable to speak after he was captured with throat injuries sustained during shootouts with police. Police declined to comment on media reports he was communicating with authorities in writing.

“There have been widely published reports that he is (communicating silently). I wouldn’t dispute that, but I don’t have any specific information on that myself,” Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told CNN.

Meanwhile the city of Boston crawled back to normal yesterday, a week after twin bombs killed three people and wounding 176. Ten of the injured lost limbs.

Memorial services were yesterday held for two of those killed in the bombings: Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager, and Chinese graduate student Lingzi Lu. An eight-year-old boy, Martin Richard, was also killed.

The city paused at 2.50pm to mark the moment a week ago when the two bombs made of pressure cookers and packed with nails and ball bearings tore through the crowd watching runners complete the Boston Marathon.