There are believed to be "a few thousand people" in the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center, New York city mayor Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday, almost 24 hours after the center's twin towers collapsed, reported AFP.
"There will be a few thousand people left in each building," he told a news conference.
Giuliani estimated that it would take two to three weeks to clear the debris.
"We took 120 dump trucks out of the city last night, and that will give you some idea of the amount of debris," he said.
The Center's two 110-storey towers collapsed within half an hour of each other on Tuesday morning after being struck by hijacked passenger airliners.
Giuliani said three survivors had been pulled from the rubble "and we are hopeful of getting out a fourth."
He said the first priority was to hope anyone still alive in the ruins and after that to start normal services in Manhattan, which has been all but cut off from the outside world for 24 hours.
"We want to make sure that food comes into the city and that people can go about their lives," he said.
According to the CNN.com, the following death estimates have been given so far:
10,000 -- Early number given by US Rep. Jim Moran of the possible dead in the World Trade Center. An estimated 30,000 to 50,000 might have been in or near the center's twin towers when they were hit by hijacked jetliners Tuesday morning. How many of them escaped before the 110-story buildings collapsed soon after remained unknown.
800 -- High estimate for fatalities at the Pentagon, where fires raged for hours after a commercial jet slammed into it.
300 -- Firefighters feared dead in New York, most engulfed by the collapsing hulks of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, as they attempted to help victims out of the burning buildings. The total could climb much higher.
266 -- Persons aboard four jetliners, transformed by hijackers into suicide bombs, two aimed at the World Trade Center, one at the Pentagon, and one that crashed in rural Pennsylvania, which appeared to have fallen short of a target near Washington, D.C. No survivors expected.
85 -- New York City police officers thought to have died during early emergency efforts in lower Manhattan.
7 -- Known dead at New York hospitals late Tuesday. The small number provided little consolation to city authorities. Most of the dead never made it to hospitals.
In all, as many as 1,400 or more are known or presumed dead, with thousands more unaccounted for and feared dead. Some 1,400 injured were admitted to New York area hospitals, many in critical condition with extensive burns.
Sifting through the rubble, they saw thousands of body parts strewn about. A National Guardsman collapsed in anguish, his head in his hands as he sat on the curb, said the CNN.
Said one man leaving the scene: "You don't want to know. You don't want to know the things we stepped over. It was horrific." – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
