Terror in US: Planes ram WTC, Pentagon; blast in Manhattan building
AGENCIES
EW YORK: Two aircraft, one of them a Boeing 767, crashed into the World Trade Center towers here Tuesday morning, killing six people and injuring about 1000. Barely 15 minutes later, another plane crashed into the Pentagon. Another explosion was heard in another building near the WTC.
A wing of the WTC has collapsed.
A Palestinian terrorist group, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, first claimed responsibility, but later denied any hand.
Within the hour, an aircraft crashed on a helicopter landing pad near the Pentagon.
"I saw the tail of a large airliner. ... It plowed right into the Pentagon," said an Associated Press Radio reporter. "There is billowing black smoke."
Paul Begala, a Democratic consultant, said he witnessed an explosion near the Pentagon shortly after two planes crashed into World Trade Center.
"It was a huge fireball, a huge, orange fireball," Begala said in an interview on his cell phone.
He said another witness told him a helicopter exploded.
President George W. Bush has said the crashes were a result of an apparent terrorist attack.
The White House, Pentagon and the Capitol Hill have been evacuated and all flights in the US have been grounded.
Bush said, "It is a difficult moment for America. Today, we've had a national tragedy. Two planes crashed into the World Trade Centre in an apparent terrorist attack."
"Terrorism against our government won't stand," he said.
One of the planes was a Boeing 767, apparently hijacked from Boston. A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that the FBI is investigating whether both the planes were hijacked.
There was no details on injuries or fatalities in the twin disasters, which happened shortly before 9 a.m. local time(1300 GMT). However, first reports coming in put the number at six dead, and 1000 injured.
Ira Furman, a former National Transportation Safety Board spokesman also indicated that the crashes were not accidental.
He told CNN there was no indication that normal air traffic would be in the area.
Planes would "normally be clearing the World Trade Center by a few miles," he said.
The large passenger commercial jet was teetering towards the tower before it "embedded in building," New York resident Jeanne Yurman told the network.
"I was watching TV. and heard a sonic boom ...," witness Jeanne Yurman told CNN. "The side of the world trade center exploded. Debris is falling like leaflets. I hear ambulances. The northern tower seems to be on fire."
The New York Stock Exchange evacuated after the planes crashed into the nearby World Trade Center, CNBC television said.
The crash appears to be an act of terrorism, a US official said.
"It does appear to be terrorist related," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
The official said the assessment was based on the action itself, two successive crashes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center within 18 minutes of each other.
"The plane was coming in low and ... it looked like it hit at a slight angle," said Sean Murtagh, a CNN vice president, the network reported.
Large holes were visible in sides of the 110-story buildings, landmark twin towers.
The tops of the twin towers were obscured by the smoke.
Thousands of pieces of what appeared to be office paper came drifting over Brooklyn, about three miles from the tower, one witness said.
The towers were struck by bombers in February 26, 1993 killing six people and injuring more than 1,000.
In 1945, an Army Air Corps B-25, a twin-engine bomber, crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in dense fog.
Planes crashed into the upper floors of both World Trade Center towers minutes apart Tuesday in a horrific scene of explosions and fires that left gaping holes in the 110-story buildings.