THIS Sunday is the 10th anniversary of a day that changed the world forever.


On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and flew them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.


At 8.46am the first plane was crashed into the World Trade Centre’s North Tower.
 

Seventeen minutes later a second plane flew into the South Tower, both towers collapsed within two hours.


At 9.37am the Pentagon was hit, 46 minutes later another plane hit the ground, its target thought to have been the White House was missed after passengers who were aware of the attacks fiercely fought the hijackers.


Just under 3,000 people lost their lives; there were no survivors from any of the flights; 2,753 victims died when the World Trade Centre was hit, and 184 people were killed in the attack on the Pentagon.


343 firefighters, 60 police officers and eight private emergency medical technicians and paramedics were also killed.


This Sunday will see an array of special memorial events, held to remember those 2,996 people who lost their lives.

"I was now a lot closer and looking up at the huge gaping hole in the remaining tower" - Dan Callister

AS the second tower dropped from the New York City skyline, hundreds of people ran for their lives as the building crashed to the ground.


Running the other way was Dan Callister, a photographer from Llanbedr DC (pictured above), who had been living in the city for seven months.


Dan, who was 26 at the time, was working as a photographer for a New York company.


On the morning of September 11, he received a call from a reporter saying a small plane had hit the World Trade Centre.


Grabbing his camera and lenses Dan jumped into a cab and headed towards the towers.


It wasn’t long before they hit escaping traffic and the cab couldn’t go any further.


“I jumped out of the taxi, I think I must of been about a mile away at this point, I could see smoke and flames billowing from both towers and started to jog towards the WTC,” said Dan.


“It was obvious that it was a lot more serious than first thought, hundreds of people were streaming up the Westside Highway past me – some completely dazed and others hysterical with fear.”


The former Ysgol Brynhyfryd student was just 200 yards from the World Trade Centre, when he started taking pictures of the second tower which was still standing.


“Fire trucks were blaring past me to get to the scene,” he said.


“I continued to head closer to the remaining tower and to try and catch up with the fire trucks.


“I was now a lot closer and looking up at the huge gaping hole in the remaining tower.


“Debris was falling out of the windows and then I realised that in the debris were people.


“I continued to shoot and work my way closer and then there was an un-earthly rumble.


“As I looked up I could see the remaining tower was beginning to collapse.”


Dan managed to take more shots before the tower began to ‘mushroom’, he, along with hundreds of New Yorkers tried to out run the dust, running for cover.


“Firefighters began to emerge from the dust cloud, they were covered and many were struggling to breath,” said Dan.


“That’s when I shot Fire Lieutenant Jerry Reilly as he sat gazing back to where the towers had once stood.


“The look in his eyes said it all.


“He managed to miraculously escape with his fire company from the North Tower as it came down.


“The scene afterwards was utter devastation.

" The same fire trucks that had passed me earlier were now twisted shells, the windows broken and covered in debris,” he added.


Dan captured hundreds of images that day, which have now been screened across the globe.


His image of fire lieutenant Reilly was used by the former US President George Bush during one of his many speeches after the attacks.


Dan, who still lives in New York said he will be spending Sunday at the Ground Zero memorial, where he will be covering the 10th anniversary memorial event.

See Dan's incredible images in this week's Free Press

Stephen Morris RIP

THE tragedy that shook America and the rest of the world also stretched to the Vale of Clwyd.


Stephen Morris from Nantglyn, lost his life during the September 11 attacks.


Stephen who was 31, worked as a computer consultant for The Oracle Corporation, he was thought to have been working on the 97th floor of the World Trade Centre that day.


A graduate from Loughborough University, Stephen moved to the USA in 1995.
More than 70 international lives were lost during the terrorist attacks.