Stories of Bermudians experiencing close calls during Tuesday's terror attacks continue to trickle into The Royal Gazette newsroom. The latest comes from Washington D.C. where a plane crashed into the Pentagon.

Madelyn Simmons-Latimer, who has worked for the Bank of America at the Pentagon for the past 22 years, is naturally happy to be alive.

The daughter of former captain of the Somerset cricket team Lloyd Simmons, and Gloria Simmons of Somerset, works on the other side of the building from the crash site.

She and her colleagues evacuated the building to safety when the crash occurred just ten minutes walk away.

"We heard a loud boom, we thought it was a bomb," she told The Royal Gazette. "The next thing the police came to the bank and told us to get out of the building... Everyone was running toward Crystal City.. We heard another loud explosion and looking back we saw a huge cloud of smoke."

Mrs. Simmons-Latimer is back at work after the bank closed for the day Wednesday. "Everyone was happy to see each other," she told The Royal Gazette. "But it's very quiet and very sombre." All colleagues at the bank have been accounted for and her two adult children who live and work in Maryland and Virginia are fine. "A few of our customers have not been accounted for - they are waiting to retrieve bodies." Security has been tightened up considerably at the Pentagon she added. "There's a lot of military activity - they're checking everyone coming into the parking lot."

She said despite having experienced a few bomb scares at the Pentagon "I have never experienced anything like that in my life... I was very, very scared."

Mrs. Simmons-Latimer gave her thoughts on talks of military retaliation for the attacks. "Before they do retaliate, I would hope they make sure they have the persons that did this. I remember the Oklahoma bombing and they were after Arabs. It ended up that it was Timothy McVeigh."