Plumes of smoke pour from the World Trade Center buildings in New York Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. Planes crashed into the upper floors of both World Trade Center towers minutes apart Tuesday in a horrific scene of explosions and fires that left gaping holesin the 110-story buildings. The Empire State building is seen in the foreground. Reader's advisory: Wired News has been unable to confirm some sources for a number of stories written by this author. If you have any information about sources cited in this article, please send an e-mail to sourceinfo[AT]wired.com.

NEW YORK CITY – This city looks like a war zone.

Two planes crashed deliberately into both towers of the World Trade Center at mid-morning on Tuesday. Within the hour, both buildings collapsed, sending huge flumes of dust and smoke billowing throughout the island of Manhattan.

No immediate reports of total casualties are available. But one exhausted firefighter said the death toll will be "unbelievable" and added that he and his coworkers were able to hear people screaming for help from within the wreckage of the towers.

Reporters on the scene were told shortly before noon EDT the confirmation by American Airlines that the two planes that crashed into the towers were hijacked commercial jets with passengers and crew aboard.

Larry Anderson, a dentist, said he saw a plane flying "amazingly low" directly over Fifth Avenue a little before 9 a.m.

"It was a pretty big plane, and it was flying so low, right down Fifth Avenue. I could see a blue logo on the plane's tail, I'm sure it was an American Airlines jet, that's how low it was flying. It wasn't a small plane; it looked like a passenger plane. About 10 minutes later I heard an explosion. And then, maybe a half hour later I heard another explosion. And then the police sirens started going off, and I heard people screaming."

"My co-workers walked down from the 84th floor about 10 minutes before the second plane hit the other tower. Some of the exits were blocked by debris on the lower floors, where the plane had hit directly. We tried to clear the exits so people could get out. Everyone was calm, we thought it was just a small plane that went astray," said Sal DeMarko.

"But when the second plane hit, a total panic broke out. There was a crash, and explosion, and a huge fireball that rushed down to the streets from the tower. People were running and screaming and fighting their way out of the area," Demarko said.

"Huge chunks of the tower, and other things, fell down on us. Dear God, I don't even want to talk about what I saw when that second plane hit. I hope and pray that what I saw wasn't parts of people. I hope it's just my imagination acting up."

Shortly before 10 a.m., a shaken and shocked crowd near the Staten Island Ferry terminal at the southernmost tip of the island watched as first the south and then the north towers collapsed.

What sounded like an explosion, followed by the grating sound of metal bending and breaking, preceded the collapse. The sounds that echoed through lower Manhattan as the towers collapsed was horrific. It felt for a moment as if the entire city was going to crumple into the ocean.

Hundreds of police, firefighters and paramedics were directly underneath those buildings as they collapsed, trying to evacuate injured people from the twin buildings.

A huge cloud of ash as if from a volcanic explosion came down as the building crumpled. The sky went black. People were choking and gasping for breath. Almost two hours later, it was still difficult to breathe downtown; the air was chokingly thick, filled with ash, smoke, and the smell of terror.

Sirens wailed, horns blared everywhere, and dozens of helicopters circled the city.

Uptown, people were shocked and shaken. Downtown, the streets filled with people whose faces were black and/or gray with smoke and ash and whose eyes were blank with disbelief. Many were bleeding. Most were in tears.

For many the sight of the Manhattan skyline without the famous Twin Towers is a shock that is impossible to process.

"I just want to go home," screamed one young woman at the terminal seconds after the towers collapsed. "I want to go home. I need to get to my kids. I want this to stop."

Getting home will be difficult. All bus and subway service was suspended in Manhattan. Traffic, except for emergency vehicles, was blocked from entering or leaving downtown Manhattan. People who live in the city are bringing co-workers home with them.

"I was on the 92nd floor when the plane hit. It was below us," said Mike Neville, a Federal Express worker.

The 92nd floor is the highest commercial use floor in the towers.

"The floor under my feet shook so hard I almost fell down, Neville said. " I thought it was an earthquake or another bomb. People started screaming, running to the stairs. There was smoke everywhere, and it was hard to see. I think some people may have gotten hurt as they tried to get out, but most everyone was remarkably calm until the second plane hit, and suddenly we realized it was Pearl Harbor all over again and we were right in the middle of it."

"Thank you, God," cried one man on the street who was evidently in one of the towers when the plane smashed into the building. "Thank you Jesus, I made it out. There were bodies flying out of the goddamn sky. Thank you, God."

"I was just getting ready to go upstairs to work when the plane smashed into my building," said Jeff Franks, whose office is in the Trade Center.

He was sitting on a bench in Battery Park, his face dark with smoke and ash, his forehead bleeding, slashed open as if by a razor blade.

"My last thought that I remember was, 'Wow, that plane is flying low.' And then there was a huge explosion; a blast of heat, and chunks of something hard fell on my head. It was like being back in Vietnam. Everyone started screaming and running. Something sharp sliced into my face. And then, I don't remember anything for about a half hour I guess, until I found myself here."

Others were caught in the panicked stampede that reportedly flooded the streets of downtown Manhattan shortly after the first plane hit the tower.

"I was on my way to work, I'd just bought a cup of coffee when I heard a loud rumbling," said Kari Sullivan, a Wall Street secretary, who struggled to hold back tears. "Then there was a huge blast. I ran outside and after about five minutes I saw a huge crowd of people running toward me. They were pushing and shoving and literally running over each other to get away."

"About 15 minutes later it happened again. This time debris rained down from the sky. People were hit with huge chunks of metal and concrete. Everything here smells of blood and death."

All cell phone service in Manhattan was down, and people were asked not to use the phone.

Many standalone ATM machines in places such as grocery stores failed. People lined up at banks. One woman said she wanted to have cash "before whatever will now happen happens." Lower Manhattan was totally blocked off to traffic except for emergency vehicles.

Many feared that hundreds of emergency workers may have been killed when the towers collapsed. Police say that over 1,000 people were injured and a dozen killed when the planes hit. Judging by the chaos, that figure seems low. Manhattan hospitals are already filled to capacity, and reportedly stretchers are filling the sidewalks in front of the hospitals. An urgent call has gone out for blood donations.

People waiting or reporting from inside the city's emergency rooms –- wounded or not — were asked to donate blood.

"Do you want to just report on this story or help your neighbors? If you want to help people live instead of just write a story about how they are dying then you'll give blood right now," one harried nurse at Bellevue Hospital scolded a reporter.

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