Bermudians described how New York's World Trade Center collapsed into downtown Manhattan yesterday morning after two hijacked airliners crashed into the twin 122-storey towers, causing massive damage.

"People will never forget this day. The buildings just aren't there any more. I just can't believe it," said Sandra Richards who said she saw people jumping from the top floors of the twin towers to their deaths just before they both crumbled to the ground.

"I was screaming the whole time and crying. I just couldn't believe that people could be so hateful as to do this to innocent people."

Ms Richards also said she watched from her office, which is just across from the World Trade Center, as the second airplane ploughed into one of the buildings 80 floors up.

"It was awful. I can't believe it and I know tomorrow it's going to seem like it was a dream."

Ms Richards described what she saw to The Royal Gazette by phone from Brooklyn.

"I was talking to my brother on the phone after arriving at work. There were already people screaming and panicking from the first collision. But as I was speaking, I was looking at the tower and a plane just flew around the corner and smashed into the building. There was a huge fireball and the building just shook like there was an earthquake. There was a loud rumble. I saw fire streaming out of the building."

Ms Richards said it was then that the people in her building were told to evacuate and she described how she walked down the stairs, 43 floors to the ground, along with hundreds of other people from floors above and below hers.

"When we got to the bottom, we came out and walked around to the back of the building. The heat was so intense and there was so much thick black smoke. Then, we saw people jumping out of the windows from the top of one of the towers. It was awful!"

She added: "It was unreal. It was like I was watching a movie. Of course, I'm afraid and I want to come home."

Ms Richards said, after coming out the building, she ran to find a way to get home to Brooklyn.

Ms Richards added that she was concerned about friends who worked near her, but that she had not yet heard from.

But she said she had heard that all of the Bermudian students from the Insurance College located close to the World Trade Center had been accounted for.

Another Bermudian, Yvonne Morgan said: "I want to come home, we're all scared here."

She told how she witnessed one of the airplanes deliberately crash into the towers as she travelled to work on the bus.

"It was like a dart and it drove straight into the building. There was a huge boom and everyone on the bus screamed," said Ms Morgan, who works at the Bermuda Tourism Office in Midtown Manhattan.

The tragedy was one of at least three apparent terrorist attacks on the United States, one of which saw another plane crash into the Pentagon building in Washington and another jetliner crash in Pennsylvania.

As she spoke to The Royal Gazette by telephone, Ms Morgan screamed as she saw on television how the entire structure collapsed into the heart of New York's financial district.

"Oh my God. The second half of the building just fell! I can't speak now, I've got to go," she said.

Contacted again minutes later, Ms Morgan said: "We can't believe this, we're just so upset!" She said: "Everything's just chaos in New York right now. Everything's shut down and it's impossible to go anywhere." Describing the plane crash, Ms Morgan said: "It was like something out of a movie. We already saw that one of the buildings was smoking. Then, while I was looking at it, a plane just crashed into it. It was like a dart and it drove straight into the building. There was a huge boom and we saw an explosion and lots of sparks. Everyone on the bus screamed.

"At first I thought it was the other building falling into it, but it was a plane. How could someone do that!?"

Ms Morgan said while she was on the bus some of her colleagues said they heard the sound of a large aircraft flying low over the city.

"They said 'that plane is flying too low' when they heard it."

Asked whether she thought the apparent attack had anything to do with current troubles in the Middle East, she said: "Oh, absolutely. I think it was just people that don't like a lot of Americans and want to show the world that America is not invincible." And asked why she thought the World Trade Center had been chosen as a possible terrorist target, Ms Morgan said: "Because they knew that would be a place where there were a lot of Americans. They wouldn't have chosen up here in midtown, near the United Nations, because there are a lot more foreigners here."

In regards to the safety of people in her office, she said: "It seems as if everyone here is okay. We think we're all right here. There are a lot of people calling from Bermuda to find out if we're all right. Don't worry, we're okay."

Asked to describe the scene on the streets of Manhattan, Ms Morgan said: "There are just lots of people standing around just trying to find out what's happening. This is unbelievable."

She noted that people in her office were trying to get hotel reservations in the city because they knew that, with transport systems shut down, there would be no way in and out of the city later in the day.