MPs to be briefed on US terror attacks

Labour and Alliance caucuses and Opposition parties are due to meet this afternoon to be fully briefed on today's terrorist attacks in the United States in which thousands are feared dead.

At about 1 am (NZT) today two hijacked planes crashed into the upper floors of both World Trade Center towers in New York.

The attacks, which were just minutes apart, caused the Twin Towers to collapse, in the world's worst act of terrorism.

Within the hour, a third passenger jet crashed on a helicopter landing pad at the Pentagon, a car bomb exploded in Washington outside the State Department and a United Airlines 747 was brought down near Pittsburgh.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff today said he had been in touch with the United States charge d-affaire in New Zealand since the early hours this morning.

New Zealand had offered to assist in any way the United States thought practical, he said.

"We stand alongside the people of the United States to do what we can to help them in the face of this incredible tragedy."

The ministry had established there were no Air NZ ticket holders among those on the hijacked flights but that was not to say no New Zealanders were caught in the tragedy, Mr Goff said.

"There must be a strong possibility New Zealanders were visiting the trade centre as tourists. The tragic irony, as anyone who has visited the trade centre will know, is that probably security on the ground is tighter than any other public building I've every been in."

"That was not sufficient to help the victims of hijackings."

He urged people to be restrained in using the Foreign Affairs o8oo number. There was no information coming through to pass on this morning.

Green Party co-leader Rod Donald said the attack on the World Trade Center should not be "used as an excuse for indiscriminate retaliation."

His immediate reaction was that it was "a cowardly act, and undeclared war.

"No matter how just your cause, not matter how right you believe your religion to be, you cannot justify the wholesale destruction of human life.

"Neither can this attack be used as an excuse for indiscriminate retaliation," he told the Herald.

"But in same way innocent people have been killed in pursuit of some purpose we don't know yet, an eye for an eye is not the solution."

Asked if New Zealand should co-operate with US intelligence in every way to could to help find the perpetrators, Mr Donald said, "We're already locked into the American intelligence networks so one presumes we are co-operating."

Asked if he supported NZ co-operating, he declined to comment.

A crisis meeting of New Zealand Government officials was held at the Reserve Bank in Wellington at 5.45 am.

Attended by Acting Prime Minister Jim Anderton and Mr Goff, the group gathered information coming in.

Security officials were present along with police, the Prime Minister's Department, Civil Aviation, and Foreign Ministry

There was immediate concern that NZ could be a target as the scale of the attacks in the US unfolded and extra police were posted at the US embassy in Wellington.

There was no immediate word of NZ passengers on the hijacked planes.

Prime Minister Helen Clark received phone messages on the disaster when she landed in Hong Kong en route to meetings in Europe.

She issued comment before catching an onward flight to Rome where she is expected to arrive at 5pm today NZ time.

"We are doing everything we can to follow up the concerns of New Zealanders," she said.

"But in the chaos that exists in New York it will be at least hours and possisbly days before it will be clear in terms of the number of casualties and the individuals concerned."

Miss Clark said the New Zealand consulate in New York, as well as the UN office and the embassy in Washington would do their best to help New Zealanders with concerns about their families.

"But right now the lines are down or clogged. It is very difficult to get information but we will do everything in our power to help."

All flights to the US have been cancelled and any in transit have been recalled.

Mr Anderton said security had been strengthened at New Zealand airports in the wake of the attacks.

Mr Anderton said there had been consideration of suspending this afternoon's parliament session entirely but he did not want to give the perpetrators of the tragedy that satisfaction.

"Most of us take the view that we should have business as usual; as far as possible because if the message is given that everything can be disrupted in democratic civilised communities and countries brought to a halt by actions like this, it may actually give more encouragement to it."

Officials were checking whether any NZ companies had offices in the World Trade Center.

Meanwhile in New York, not knowing what they could do to help, a steady stream of stunned New Zealanders this morning laid flowers at the gates of the United States embassy.

Most of them were passing the embassy on their way to work.

They could not find words to explain what had moved them to the gesture.

"You can't do anything that's useful, so you do something that's vaguely irrelevant," one woman said. "Just seeing those people jumping out of the buildings......it was awful."

Embassy staff lowered the American flag to half mast at 9.20am (local time), and armed guards stood silently inside the security gates.

A notable police presence was keeping a close watch on the vehicles moving around the embassy, and urged flower-givers to move illegally parked vehicles immediately.

One message, accompanied by a postcard of New York clearly depicting the now shattered World Trade Center, simply said "we will miss you all".

Many of the people dropping off flowers were thinking of the possibility that a terrorist attack could happen to New Zealand.

"It just shows us how security systems can be ineffective. The fact that it was the United States, and the fact that it was so well coordinated. It's scary," one woman said.

Another visitor likened the event to the assassination of President Kennedy.

"I know where I was when that happened. It'll be the same with this."

The New Zealand Herald will publish a special print edition with coverage of the terrorist attacks. It will be available in Auckland from noon today.

Continuous coverage online

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 special hotline: 0800 872 111

Online database for friends and family