Pub Date: 12/09/2001
Pub: ST
Page: 1
Edition: 1st
Headline: Terrorists bring US to its knees
By: Lee Siew Hua, US Correspondent
Picture Caption:
COLLISION COURSE : An aircraft speeds towards the towers.
DIRECT HIT : Smoke billows from the upper floors.
FIREBALL : The top of the tower is engulfed by flames.
A cloud of smoke and debris engulfs the second tower as it implodes.
Subject: Terrorism

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* Chaos as planes hit New York's World Trade Centre; both 110-storey towers collapse * plane hits Pentagon * another passenger aircraft crashes * airports closed across the country

WASHINGTON - Unknown terrorists yesterday brought the United States to its knees with a series of coordinated attacks that left possibly thousands dead and injured and the sole superpower in the world in shock, chaos and anger.

All hell broke loose in New York shortly after 9 am as corporate America started work. From out of the clear blue sky, two hijacked aircraft flew straight into the twin towers of the 110-storey World Trade Centre in Manhattan.

This set off massive explosions. Within seconds, huge columns of smoke spewed from the shattered floors. Broken glass and debris rained on the streets below as panic spread.

At about the same time, a third aircraft hit the fortress-like Pentagon, setting off a huge fire and sending 20,000 military and civilian personnel home in an immediate evacuation.

A fourth aircraft, also believed to have been hijacked, crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

After the initial moments of confusion and pandemonium, it became clear that America was under an unprecedented attack from terrorists who had succeeded in unleasing massive mayhem from right under the nose of America's security and intelligence authorities.

President George W. Bush disrupted a visit to Florida to grapple with the crisis.

"Terrorism against our nation will not stand," he said in a short television appearance.

He said the assaults were an "a national tragedy and an apparent act of terrorism against our country", and ordered a full investigation.

Meanwhile, the White House was evacuated, as was Capitol Hill. All air traffic was halted. International flights were diverted to Canada.

Back in New York, the city's emergency services rushed to the World Trade Centre to evacuate its tenants and rescue the wounded.

No one could even estimate the number of dead and injured. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani could only say there had been a "tremendous number of lives lost". One eye-witness, Mr Terrance Phillips, 35, told The New York Times he saw a plane crashing and exploding into the building.

"People were watching and then they started stampeding. People were jumping out of the building. People seemed to be deciding just to take their own lives."

Just who are responsible for unleashing this terror remains a mystery. Suspicion at this stage is focused on Saudi-born guerrilla leader Osama Bin-Laden, said to have issued warnings three weeks ago that he would mount an unprecedented assault on American interests.

Then as millions around the world sat transfixed by the spectacle of all-powerful America gripped by fear and confusion, carried live by the likes of CNN and BBc television across the globe, the twin towers collapsed before their very eyes.

The very icons of American capitalism and power were down. The US Government was as shaken as it was enraged.

It will hunt down and punish the perpetrators wherever they are, President Bush said later in a second broadcast.