World News

Military Under Attack - Death Toll Grows

Written by Joshua Smith - 12th September, 2001

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In a day that will go down in history as the day that changed our understanding of the security afforded to the peoples of democratic nations, it is very likely that thousands of civilians and military and emergency personnel have perished in the acts of terrorism that rocked the foundations of the democratic world almost 24 hours ago.

At this stage, with fires still raging at both the Pentagon and throughout downtown Manhattan and rubble littering the scenes of both attacks, it is unclear just how many victims have lost their lives at the hands of pure evil. Estimates, however, are flooding the world's news services in an attempt to convey the breadth of this common disaster.

Thus far, it has been estimated that somewhere between 266 and 285 people have been killed as passengers or workers within the four hijacked aircraft. Further to this, it has been announced that approximately 300 New York firefighters are missing in action, and presumed dead as a result of the unexpected collapse of the twin towers during the height of the rescue effort. Both the Chief and Deputy Chief of the Fire Department are believed to have been amongst those killed.

The New York Police Department have also had their ranks decimated during the ill-fated early hours of the rescue effort, with 78 police missing in action.

The total number of deaths caused by the Pentagon strike have been estimated at between 100 and 800, with most of those being office employees of the US Army and Navy who occupied the newly-renovated space within the devastated Corridor 4 that was located on the West side of the heavily-fortified structure.

The most confusion surrounds the largest and most dramatic of the terrorist incidents, with little but educated estimates guessing at the number of casualties created by the collapse of the World Trade Center. Fortunately, Building 7 was unoccupied at the time of its collapse, but the twin towers are normally occupied by as many as 40 or 50 thousand workers and visitors at any one time. While hundreds of occupants of each building were successfully evacuated, eyewitnesses report that dozens desperately leapt to their deaths in the minutes before the collapse of the Northern tower, and hundreds if not thousands of other workers are believed to have been crushed to death.

Hospitals throughout New York City are being overwhelmed by injured citizens and emergency workers. St Vincents, which is operating closest to the epicentre of the scene of devastation has admitted no less than 362 victims at the time of writing.

So far, only six survivors have been uncovered from within the rubble, though reports indicate that cell phone calls are continuing to be made from a select few survivors who are trapped by the remnants of the fallen structure.

At this stage, it's hard to gauge just how many Australians have been directly affected by the disaster, but authorities have announced that approximately 50 Australians are unaccounted for at this stage.

If any particular day, there are close to 15,000 Australian citizens living and working in New York City, and somewhere in the vicinity of 11,000 tourists visiting the city that never sleeps. What's clear at this stage is that few will receive any rest in the wake of this unprecedented civilian disaster.