Rescuers searched for survivors on Wednesday in the wreckage of what was once the World Trade Center, the day after two hijacked passenger planes slammed into its 110-story twin towers, killing possibly thousands of people.
Two police officers were pulled alive from the rubble late on Tuesday, more than 12 hours after the attack, raising a ray of hope for others. But eyewitnesses and emergency workers said they were skeptical that many survived.
The two planes struck the towers, where 40,000 people worked in the first part of a coordinated attack that also hit the Pentagon, the nation's military nerve center outside Washington.
Clouds of smoke were still hanging over the lower part of Manhattan in the early hours of Wednesday as cranes, mechanical diggers and other heavy equipment was brought in to help move the rubble.
"When we get the final number (of casualties), it will be more than we can bear," Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said at a news conference.
In scenes eyewitnesses said would haunt them for the rest of their lives, bodies fell from the buildings after the two planes hit, the first at about 8:45 am and the second just after 9 a.m. Thunderous clouds of fire and smoke poured from the gaping holes.
About an hour later, the south tower collapsed, sending a enormous wall of rubble, debris, dust and smoke up neighboring streets. The north tower collapsed shortly afterward, wiping out the city's tallest skyscrapers and forever altering the famous skyline of lower Manhattan.
More than 300 firefighters were missing, the fire department said, and a source said 85 police were missing.
"People didn't think that the buildings were going to fall down," said Mike Wilson, who worked on the 51st floor of one of the towers. Many people stayed in their offices because the stairwells were so crowded, he said.
"Those people, and all the firemen going up, well, they are all dead," Wilson said.
Late on Tuesday, a 47-story building, also part of the World Trade Center, the biggest office complex in the world, collapsed after fire raged in the building all day.
Where the towers once stood, at the southern tip of Manhattan, there was nothing but steel, rubble, flames, smoke and a gaping hole in the skyline.
President George W. Bush late on Tuesday gave the first official estimate of the death toll.
"Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil," Bush said in an address to the nation after the attacks.
Before the buildings collapsed, a Reuters reporter reached a worker at the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, a dealer-broker near the top of the World Trade Center. "We're fucking dying!" the workers said before hanging up the phone.
As night fell, the scene was lit by huge banks of bright, industrial klieg lights to help rescuers. Bulldozers began to clear mud and debris.
As the two police officers were pulled from the rubble, two other victims trapped inside called for help on cell phones and said there were others trapped inside with them.
A man who helped search for victims said the chances of surviving were remote. "Inside, forget about it. There's nobody to be found down there. Not in the tower I was in," said Gary Louisa after he was taken to a hospital for dehydration and smoke inhalation.
Temporary morgues were set up at hospitals and on piers along the Hudson River. Six people were confirmed dead at two hospitals.
Hospitals awaited waves of more patients, but, in an ominous sign, fewer came than expected. "I think so many people are dead. It's a bad sign that there are no mass casualties," said Dr James Dillard at St Vincents Hospital in lower Manhattan.
Officials at St Vincent's said about 350 victims had arrived. Four people had died and more than 50 had serious trauma or injuries, Dr Richard Westphal told CBS television.
He said about 45 of the injured were emergency workers.
Bush said in his address that the American economy would be "open for business" on Wednesday. But New York, its financial center, was closed.
Giuliani said the whole of the lower part of the island of Manhattan was closed for business and he urged people to stay out of the city on Wednesday unless it was essential that they came to work.
Financial markets were scheduled to remain closed on Wednesday for the second day.
Late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday, the city, which is normally bustling late into the night, was more like a ghost town. Only emergency vehicles and a few taxis circulated and convoys of trucks carrying cranes, diggers and other equipment moved toward the disaster area.
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