Casualties are expected to run into the thousands from the deadly attack on the World Trade Center as rescuers worked into the early hours of yesterday morning digging for survivors in the debris of the collapsed twin towers.
Authorities have yet to release an official death toll, but New York Major Rudy Giuliani said the attack on the landmark building had caused horrendous loss of life.
"When we get the final number, it will be more than we can bear," Giuliani said. "The numbers will be very, very high."
President George W. Bush said thousands of lives were lost after two hijacked passenger aircraft tore into the World Trade Center, another plunged into the Pentagon and a fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
At least 260 passengers and crew aboard all the aircraft died. More than 40,000 people work every day at the World Trade Center, which is usually packed with people during the morning rush hour.
As convoys of heavy digging equipment headed through Manhattan to the World Trade Center site, emergency workers ferried a steady steam of injured to local hospitals.
At Chelsea Piers, a popular Manhattan sports center, emergency workers set up a triage center and a makeshift morgue in the center's ice rink, CBS television reported.
Mayor Giuliani said six people were confirmed dead and about 1,100 people were being treated at local hospitals. About 2,000 "walking wounded" were ferried across the Hudson River to New Jersey.
St Vincent's Hospital officials said about 340 victims were being treated there, five people had died and more than 50 had serious trauma or injuries. About 54 of the injured were firefighters or emergency workers, a spokesman said.
At NYU Downtown Hospital, the nearest hospital to the lower Manhattan attack site, by late afternoon on Tuesday at least 60 firefighters had arrived with various injuries, including many suffering from smoke inhalation.
Ambulance after ambulance arrived at the hospital carrying fire department and emergency medical personnel. Some were wheeled in on gurneys, wearing oxygen masks. Some appeared to be unconscious and hospital staff were trying to revive them, shouting and pounding on their chests.
City officials said more than 300 firefighters sent to the scene of the World Trade Center disaster on Tuesday were still missing.
"We believe that many of them are gone," Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen said in a news briefing late on Tuesday.
The firefighters were among rescuers in the process of evacuating people who were trapped inside the twin towers when the buildings collapsed after being hit by the hijacked airliners.
New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said he did not know how many police officers were missing, but a source put the number at 85.
"I had a number of people there. We have not found them yet, so I don't know the numbers," he said.
A ray of hope emerged when two police officers were pulled alive from the rubble, and others trapped inside made desperate pleas for help via cell phones.
As morning approached, hospitals that had braced themselves to receive the dead and injured began anticipating that the heaviest waves would begin arriving after daybreak.
Meanwhile, New York commuters faced a complex transit scenario yesterday.
Those braving the morning commute would find a rapidly changing situation marked by disruptions, diversions and suspended modes of transport.
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