Mayor Says 3,700 People Missing in New York, Rescue Work Goes on

Some 3,700 people are reported missing in New York following the terrorist attacks Tuesday morning that toppled the twin towers of the World Trade Center in the city, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Thursday.

Rescue Work Goes on Despite Risk

The huge effort to search for survivors and victims from the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York continued Wednesday despite weakened structures.

City officials said hundreds of buildings around the trade center might be affected by the collapse of the twin towers after being hit by two jetliners Tuesday.

Some buildings are at risk of collapse and it has been confirmed that a nearby building called Number One Liberty Plaza has collapsed partially. Rescue workers have evacuated from the vicinity, according to local television reports.

New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said five survivors and at least 82 dead bodies had so far been recovered from the ruins of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, where thousands of people were believed to have been trapped.

Giuliani told a news conference later Wednesday that workers removed 3,000 tons of debris Wednesday from the shattered landscape of south Manhattan. "This is a very dangerous rescue effort," he said, adding that firefighters and police officers were risking their own lives to save others.

Asked about a report that the city has requested 6,000 body bags from federal officials, the mayor said: "Yes, I believe that's correct."

Police and fire officials said there were problems with other " mini-collapses" among some badly damaged buildings nearby, and when the towers were destroyed, the Marriott World Trade Center hotel fell with them.

The search and rescue mission continued despite the problems, they said.

Rescue Workers Ordered to Leave Pentagon

US search and rescue workers were temporarily evacuated from an area at the Pentagon Thursday morning following a telephoned bomb threat.

"The rescue team were moved away from the building for a brief time," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Crews had worked through the night with little hope for finding more survivors in Tuesday's terrorist attack on the building.

Some 70 bodies have been removed so far, two days after a hijacked plane slammed into the Defense Department headquarters in an attack by terrorists.






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