Massive attacks destroy World Trade Center
National Correspondent
991 words
11 September 2001
NEW YORK, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Three hijacked planes crashed into major U.S. landmarks on Tuesday, destroying both of New York's mighty twin towers and plunging the Pentagon in Washington into flames in an unprecedented assault on key symbols of U.S. military and financial power.
Loss of life was expected to be catastrophic from the collapse of the giant towers of the World Trade Center where many thousands of people work. The two enormous edifices both fell in a huge cloud of smoke and fire two hours after the initial impacts.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said there had been a "tremendous number of lives lost" in the assault on his city.
The attacks, the worst on the U.S. mainland in modern history, plunged the country into chaos and panic, paralyzing communications, closing markets and forcing the evacuation of key buildings.
Another plane crashed south of Pittsburgh. It was not clear if this was another attempted hijacking. As international flights were diverted to Canada, the Federal Aviation Authority said it had yet to account for a number of planes.
President George W. Bush cut short a visit to Florida and rushed back to Washington to face the greatest crisis of his young presidency.
He called the deliberate aerial assaults an "apparent terrorist attack", and ordered a full-scale investigation. Early speculation about the source of the attack centered on Saudi-born guerrilla leader Osama Bin-Laden.