Mass murder in the living room

By JULIE MIDDLETON

They are images which will be burned onto millions of memories forever - the day that terror visited New York on the wings of kamikaze airliners.

In breakfast-time kitchens across New Zealand yesterday, the radio news first brought a sleepy disbelief. Was this a joke?

Televisions snapped on, people shouted for family members to come quick - and the shock and horror unrolled, bringing with it the adrenalin-fuelled sensation of disbelief that accompanies only the very worst in this life.

The top of the World Trade Center's distinctive north tower was pouring smoke; it was uncurling lazily, in a waythat seemed to mock the destruction below.

Video cameras - am-cam and professional news crew - recorded the smoke wafting on a gentle wind across a blue-sky Manhattan.Normally a phlegmatic breed, New Yorkers were screaming, pointing and crying in the streets.

Eighteen minutes later, another jet scythed into the second tower, and burst into a bright-orange fireball.

We were witnesses to terror. We saw reason give way to desperation as some trade centre workers leaped from the burning towers.

About a hour after the first strike, news filtered back that another symbol of American power, the Pentagon, had been hit by a third plane and a fourth airliner had crashed, this time in Pennsylvania.

In Lower Manhattan, an early and malevolent dusk fell as the doomed World Trade Center towers unpeeled and imploded within half an hour of each other. They spawned an orange-grey ball of dust and ash which advanced slowly along city streets, smothering everything in its wake.

When the dust settled, we saw a war zone. The ground was coated with debris: aeroplane chairs, paper, glass and twisted metal. Survivors walked, exhausted, as if out of the smoke of battle.

We saw mass murder from a myriad angles.

Then came a live cross to Kabul for reports of explosions. For a moment it appeared to be swift retaliation against the man regarded as the most likely mastermind of the terror attacks, Osama bin Laden, and the Taleban regime that harbours him. But this was not what it seemed; it turned out to be just another episode in Afghanistan's civil war.

One thing was what it seemed - some Palestinians greeted news of the attacks with joy. They shouted, fired their guns and cheered in the streets, adding anger and bewilderment to viewers' numb shock.

Finally, in an eerie echo of history, George W. Bush closed his address to the nation with the words, "God Bless America", just as his father had done during the Gulf War a decade ago.

Full coverage: Terror in America

Pictures

Video

The fatal flights

Emergency telephone numbers for friends and family of victims

These numbers are valid for calls from within New Zealand, but may be overloaded at the moment.

United Airlines: 0168 1800 932 8555

American Airlines: 0168 1800 245 0999

NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade: 0800 872 111

US Embassy in Wellington (recorded info): 04 472 2068

Online database for friends and family