Agencies
New York, Sept 11: Hundreds of family members and friends read out the names of the nearly 3,000 people, including Indians, who died in the 9/11 attacks 15 years ago in a solemn ceremony at a memorial built here on Ground Zero as the US commemorated the anniversary of the biggest terror attack on its soil. Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton momentarily paused their bitter rivalry and separately joined the people at the 9/11 memorial in downtown Manhattan to honour the 2,977 people killed and the thousands left injured when al-Qaeda terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.
Moments of silence were observed at precisely the time the planes struck the twin towers, the Pentagon and the one that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after its passengers overpowered the hijackers. People carried pictures of their loved ones who died in the attacks and placed flowers and American flags in the names inscribed into bronze panels edging the twin reflecting pools at the memorial site. The pools sit within the footprints where the Twin Towers once stood and the names of every person who died in the 2001 attacks as well as in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing are inscribed into the Memorial pools.
Every year at the solemn and emotional ceremony, those who were killed in the attacks are remembered by not just their families but by hundreds of visitors and tourists who attend the commemoration.
The memorial is visited by thousands of city residents and tourists daily to offer homage to those killed in the attacks. A new freedom tower, ‘One World Trade Centre’, now stands next to the memorial and a museum has also been erected that houses relics, including flags and equipment from the time the towers fell. It tells the stories of the thousands of firefighters, ordinary citizens and law enforcement authorities who helped save countless lives and toiled day and night to find the
survivors in the wreckage.
