BOSTON - She was young and dreamt of building a career in the world of finance. But that ambition - and her short life - was shattered when the twin bombs ripped through the Boston Marathon.

Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television said Ms Lu Lingzi, who was studying for a masters degree in statistics at Boston University, accompanied a friend to the race. Her friend, identified as Zhou Danling, was injured in the blasts.

The television station reported that Ms Lu, believed to be in her mid-twenties, came from the north-eastern Chinese city of Shenyang and went to Boston after graduating from the Beijing Institute of Technology.

Ms Lu's resume on LinkedIn, a social networking website, shows a string of academic achievements and internships with financial institutions such as Deloitte Consulting and Bank of China. She also posted a TOEL score of 102 on her LinkedIn page.

Chinese Internet sites were filled with mournful messages about a woman whose ambitions took her from a rust-belt hometown of Shenyang to Beijing and then to the United States, reported New York Times.

Her account on Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese service used by tens of millions of people, attracted more than 10,000 messages after Chinese media widely reported her death, said the newspaper.

"You are in heaven now, where there are no bombs," said one typical message.

Ms Lu's own final message on Weibo was posted on Monday and showed a picture of a bowl of Chinese fried bread with the comment "My wonderful breakfast".

Ms Lu, shown on her Weibo page as a petite woman with shoulder-length hair, said that she enjoyed food, music and finance. Other Facebook photos showed her in poses at Toah Nipi, a Christian retreat centre in southern New Hampshire.

Phoenix TV quoted her former middle school teacher Yang Yongkun as saying: "She was exceptionally smart and down to earth".

Ms Lu's identity was reported by media in the US and China, despite a request by her family for anonymity.

"Please respect the family's wishes, and delete the name," wrote a Sina Weibo user wrote.

"The family requested anonymity, please respect this," another said.

Ms Lu's friend, who is also a Boston University graduate, was in a stable condition after surgery, China's state news agency Xinhua reported.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said that the government had reached out to the families of both Chinese victims, reported AFP.

"The Chinese leaders and government are very concerned about the death of the Chinese citizen and the injury of another one in the explosion," she said at a regular

briefing.

She added that the Chinese consulate had contacted the families of both and visited the injured person, whose condition she described as "stable" and not life-threatening.

The Chinese consulate "will provide every assistance" to the family members of both victims, she added, without naming them.

In a statement, the US embassy in Beijing expressed condolences to the victims of the bombing, including the two Chinese.