Two hijacked jets crash into WTC as terror strikes US

HT’s report a day after the 9/11 attack. It emerged that al-Qaeda was behind the strike, triggering a global hunt for Osama Bin Laden

- HT Correspondents

Fortress America was breached today by the world’s most spectacular terrorist attack. In the first of a series of coordinated attacks, two hijacked planes crashed into and levelled New York's I10-storey World Trade Center. In Washington DC, another hijacked aircraft wrecked parts of the Pentagon and a car bomb damaged the State Department. Thousands of people are feared dead.

US President George Bush said the explosions were an “apparent terrorist attack” and said “terrorism against our nation will not stand”. He promised the US would hunt down those responsible.

‘A Boeing 767, also believed to have been hijacked, also crashed in western Pennsylvania. The attacks began shortly before 9 a.m. local time (2 p.m. EST), when two hijacked passenger planes flew directly into the upper floors of the World Trade Center towers in the heart of New York's financial district.

Shortly afterwards in Washington DC. an aircrafthit the helicopter pad at the Pentagon. One side of the five-sided US military headquarters collapsed and there are an unknown number of casualties.