Connect with us

Published

on

It’s almost 20 years since the September 11 attacks but for many survivors, the pain and trauma are still raw.

Some were left with life-changing physical injuries, while many still struggle with the mental torment caused by the events of that day.

One of the most severely injured survivors, Lauren Manning, suffered burns to more than 80% of her body.

“By any medical standard, I should have died,” she tells Sky News.

Lauren had just entered the World Trade Center’s North Tower when the first hijacked plane crashed into the building, sending a fireball hurtling down a lift shaft and into the lobby.

The first hijacked plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center
Image:
The first hijacked plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center

“There was this incredibly loud, piercing, whistling sound and an instant later I was engulfed in flames,” she says.

“The pain was incalculable, crushing, penetrating deeper and deeper.

“I was burning alive. There are no other words for it.”

As Lauren fought against the flames, she ran outside and across a road before dropping and rolling on a grass embankment where a man tried to help her.

“I didn’t fall down and die in a heap of flames – I struggled against them,” she says.

“I was screaming to him: ‘Get me the hell out of here!'”

As she lay severely injured, Lauren watched in horror as terrorists smashed a second plane into the World Trade Center’s South Tower.

HOLD FOR STORY FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2001, file photo, smoke billows from one of the towers of the World Trade Center and flames as debris explodes from the second tower in New York. Family members of 9/11 families and others harmed in the terrorist attacks are on a fresh quest to hold Saudi Arabia responsible. A magistrate judge presiding over a Thursday, March 23, 2017, hearing says she hopes to streamline the legal process to speed the lawsuits along. (AP Photo/Chao Soi Cheong, File)
Image:
Nearly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks. Pic: AP

She saw people fall from the skyscrapers, knowing that her colleagues from financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald were trapped on the upper floors.

All of the company’s 658 employees in the office on September 11 were killed that day.

On the ground, Lauren – who had previously escaped the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center – managed to find an ambulance but her chances of survival were slim.

“The burns were extraordinary,” she says.

“It burnt 82.5% (of my body), most of it third-degree.

“More than 20% was fourth or fifth degree, which means you lose the muscle or the bone – so various amputations (were needed) on fingers on both hands.”

• ‘I was so afraid my son would not recognise me’

Lauren spent six months in hospital after suffering burns to more than 80% of her body. Pic: Lauren Manning
Image:
Lauren spent six months in hospital after suffering burns to more than 80% of her body. Pic: Lauren Manning

Lauren was rushed to hospital and eventually placed in an induced coma before being moved to a specialist burns centre.

Over three months while she was in a coma, her husband Greg would read Robert Burns poems and play music from their dating days.

“Perhaps it had an impact on me, knowing I was loved,” she says.

“My parents drove hours and hours expecting me to be dead – and they were there every day.”

Several days after waking from her coma, Lauren’s then one-year-old son Tyler visited her for the first time since the attack.

Lauren was reunited with her son about three months after 9/11 attack. Pic: Lauren Manning
Image:
Lauren was reunited with her son about three months after 9/11 attack. Pic: Lauren Manning

“I was so afraid that he would not recognise me,” she says.

“He came down the hall and there he was walking. A beautiful little soul.

“He did not recognise me at first…. but he came back towards me and he recognised me, I guess through the eyes and the voice.

“That was everything I needed.”

Lauren spent more than six months in hospital but her recovery – which involved several operations – took nearly 10 years.

“You get burned – which is probably the most sadistic form of human torture – and it takes years and years,” she says.

Lauren Manning pictured with her husband Greg and their two sons Jagger and Tyler. Pic: Lauren Manning
Image:
Lauren pictured with her husband Greg and their two sons Jagger and Tyler. Pic: Lauren Manning

Lauren, whose second son Jagger was born in 2009, still has contact numbers listed in her phone for many of her colleagues who died on 11 September 2001.

“The notion of the murders and the terror and the death are never far away,” she adds.

The fire official who narrowly escaped Twin Tower collapse

Lynn Tierney arrived at the World Trade Center after both planes had hit the Twin Towers.

The deputy commissioner at New York City’s fire department had been due to attend a job interview on the 68th floor of the North Tower that morning – but her plans had been drastically changed by the terror attacks.

Lynn Tierney was a deputy commissioner at New York City Fire Department. Pic: NYC Fire Department
Image:
Lynn Tierney was a deputy commissioner at New York City Fire Department. Pic: NYC Fire Department

“It was a horrific scene outside,” she says.

“Both towers were burning… it was engulfing the upper floors.

“But in addition to the flames, the worst thing was there were people jumping (from the towers).

“I saw a couple jump with their hands together. That was unbelievable.

“It continued the whole time we were in the lobby. You could hear it. It was a terrible sound.

“I can’t imagine the choice they were faced with. I was just thinking about their families. It was just horrific.”

People watch smoke billow from the Twin Towers. Pic: AP
Image:
People watch smoke billow from the Twin Towers. Pic: AP

Lynn had travelled to the scene with 12 firefighters from two different units – all of whom later died during the rescue effort.

She walked into the lobby of the North Tower through a window after the exploding jet fuel had blown out the glass.

But at that point, fire chiefs had already determined they wouldn’t be able to put out the flames.

“The mission became purely rescue, to try to go up and get out as many people as possible,” she says.

Lynn was working to help coordinate the rescue effort from the north side of the North Tower when suddenly the South Tower collapsed.

• ‘The dust was so thick you could almost chew it’

People flee after the collapse of one of the towers. Pic: AP
Image:
People flee after the collapse of one of the towers. Pic: AP

She says she “ran like hell” and jumped into a loading dock about 80 yards away.

“The dust was so thick you could almost chew it,” she says.

“It was gritty so you couldn’t take a breath up your nose or anything.

“I was having trouble breathing. Everybody was.”

After entering the loading dock, Lynn says a police inspector tried to shield her with his body.

“That’s the only time I thought about dying,” she says.

“I just thought: ‘God, just let it be fast.’ I don’t want to linger in here like a miner for 18 days and be crushed at the same time.”

After getting to safety, Lynn was in New York City Hall when the second tower collapsed, about two blocks away.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

9/11: ‘People decided between burning and jumping’

The force of the building collapse blew the hall’s doors open and as smoke and dust came into the building, Lynn hid in a staircase.

Some 343 firefighters died that day and Lynn wrote about 100 eulogies for the victims.

On one day alone, 23 funerals were held.

“These emotions from 9/11 are always under the surface,” says Lynn, who later became president of the 9/11 Tribute Centre and held the role until 2007.

“You learn to live with it. I call it ‘keeping a bolt in your heart’.

“It’s overwhelming sometimes. The oddest thing for me is I lived through it.

“I can’t believe I got out of there. That’s the biggest surprise.”

• The British trader who felt Twin Tower plane crash

Briton Charlie Gray thought an earthquake had hit New York when he was working in the North Tower on 11 September 2001.

The London-born trader, who was employed by broker firm ICAP, was stood in the office on the 26th floor when the building “shook and moved”.

Charlie Gray escaped the September 11 attacks in New York
Image:
Charlie Gray escaped the September 11 attacks in New York

Suddenly, he saw debris falling from the upper floors.

“You could see this stuff was really burning,” Charlie tells Sky News.

“We thought it must be something like a bomb.

“Nobody had to tell us. Everybody just headed for the stairs.”

Charlie and his colleagues began walking down the tower but they were slowed down as more and more people entered the stairwell, before they passed three firefighters on the 17th floor.

“As they passed us we heard on their radio another plane has hit the South Tower,” Charlie says.

“It had taken about 17 minutes to get down nine floors.”

‘It was like a warzone’

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

What is the legacy of 9/11?

Charlie describes the scene outside the World Trade Center as “like a warzone”.

He says he saw body parts on the street and cars that had been destroyed by falling debris.

A “black charred body” landed about 30ft away as he walked to the ferry terminal and he watched 20 people jump from the towers, he says.

“What was their option?” Charlie asks.

“You stand and either die of smoke inhalation, you burn to death, or you take that quick leap and get it over with.”

After boarding a ferry, Charlie “heard a rumble” and watched as the South Tower came down.

“In less than a minute, the dock where we were just standing was a mass of dust and dirt,” he adds.

Subscribe to StoryCast ’21 now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Spreaker

Charlie says 20 of his friends were killed that day – including one he saw in the lobby of the North Tower shortly before the first plane struck.

He says a psychiatrist later diagnosed him with a form of PTSD called “guilt disorder”.

“I was having trouble getting my head around why so many people died and I didn’t,” Charlie says.

After moving back to the UK in 2016, he now gives motivational speeches but admits he still sometimes struggles with the emotional toll of 9/11.

“I get a little teary now and again,” he says.

“I think about things and get a little bit upset because it was an awful day.

“It will never go – that monkey will always be on my back.

“But I found talking about it and sharing my experiences with people helped me get through it.”

Continue Reading

US

Thousands protest against Donald Trump and Elon Musk at rallies in all 50 US states

Published

on

By

Thousands protest against Donald Trump and Elon Musk at rallies in all 50 US states

Thousands of people gathered in various cities across the US as protests against Donald Trump and Elon Musk took place in all 50 states on Saturday.

Around 1,200 demonstrations were planned in locations including Washington DC, New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida – just miles away from where the US president has this weekend played golf.

The “Hands Off!” protests were against the Trump administration’s handling of government downsizing, human rights and the economy, among other issues.

In Washington DC, protesters streamed on the grass in front of the Washington Monument, where one person carried a banner which read: “Make democracy great again.”

Demonstrators hold up their banners during a 'Hands Off!' protests protest against President Donald Trump at the Washington Monument in Washington, Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Image:
Thousands gathered in Washington DC to rally against various Trump policies. Pic: AP

A demonstrator twirls a ribbon during a "Hands Off!" protest against President Donald Trump at the Washington Monument in Washington, Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Image:
Pic: AP

Another protester took aim at Mr Trump‘s handling of Russia and Ukraine, with a placard that read: “Stop Putin’s puppets from destroying America.”

Tesla boss Mr Musk also featured on many signs due to his role in controversial government cuts as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Demonstrators march during a "Hands Off!" protest against President Donald Trump on Saturday, April 5, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Image:
Demonstrators in NYC. Pic: AP

People take part in the nationwide anti-Trump “Hands Off” protest in Atlanta, Georgia U.S., April 5, 2025. REUTERS/ Megan Varner
Image:
People marching in Atlanta, Georgia. Pic: Reuters

Hundreds of people show up to protest President Donald Trump at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro, Vt., during a national "Hands Off" protest on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)
Image:
A rally in Vermont. Pic: The Brattleboro Reformer via AP

Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist, said she drove to the rally to protest Mr Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education”.

More on Donald Trump

“I mean, our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is,” she added.

A drone view shows a protest at the Utah State Capitol building in a demonstration that is part of larger "Hands off" events organized nationwide against U.S. President Donald Trump, in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., April 5, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
Image:
A drone view of the protest at the Utah State Capitol building. Pic Reuters

People participate in a protest at the Utah State Capitol building in a demonstration that is part of larger "Hands off" events organized nationwide against U.S. President Donald Trump, in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., April 5, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
Image:
A protester sports a Handmaid’s Tale costume. Pic: Reuters

People participate in a protest at the Utah State Capitol building in a demonstration that is part of larger "Hands off" events organized nationwide against U.S. President Donald Trump, in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., April 5, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
Image:
Pic: Reuters

Some at the various protests carried Ukrainian flags, while others sported rainbow attire and waved rainbow flags in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

Other protesters wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and carried “Free Palestine” signs.

Protesters refuse to take Donald Trump’s policies lying down

It was built to honour George Washington, a founding father of the United States.

And in the shadow of the 555ft Washington Monument, protestors were refusing to accept Donald Trump’s policies lying down.

“Stand tall,” they chanted, again and again.

“In every city, stand tall. In every state, stand tall. In truth, stand tall. In justice, stand tall.”

Those words, shouted by thousands on the city’s iconic mall, were reinforced by the words on their placards and t-shirts.

A minister, wearing a t-shirt with ‘Troublesome Priest’ printed on it, told me she found what was happening in the US government “appalling and immortal”.

One man said he had won the long-distance award, having travelled 2,750 miles from Hawaii for the protest.

“I finally reached a breaking point,” he added. “I couldn’t take it anymore.”

Another woman said: “We have to speak up, we have to act, we have to do something, because this is not America.”

I asked her what she would say to those who argue the people did speak when they elected Donald Trump as president.

She replied: “Some people have spoken and then some people have not and those of us that have not, we need to speak now.”

Thousands marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan and in Boston, Massachusetts, while hundreds gathered in the sunshine outside the Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City, and in the rain outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.

👉 Follow Trump 100 on your podcast app 👈

Mr Trump – who shook financial markets with his tariffs announcement this week – spent the day in Florida, playing a round of golf before returning to his Mar-a-Lago residence.

People protest in Manhattan, during a demonstration that is part of larger “Hands Off!” events organized nationwide against U.S. President Donald Trump, in New York City, New York, U.S., April 5, 2025. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
Image:
People protest in Manhattan. Pic: Reuters

Activists protest President Donald Trump, who was a few miles away at his Trump National Golf Club, during a "Hands Off!" demonstration Saturday, April 5, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Image:
Activists in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Pic: AP

Some four miles from Mar-a-Lago, more than 400 people gathered – and drivers honked their horns in support of protesters who held up signs including one which read: “Markets tank, Trump golfs.”

The White House has said Mr Trump plans to go golfing again on Sunday.

Continue Reading

US

Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they’re also battling with another problem

Published

on

By

Global markets have given Trump a clear no-confidence vote - and his fickleness is making the problem worse

Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.

The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.

The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.

Tariffs latest: FTSE 100 suffers biggest daily drop since COVID

Financial investors had been gradually re-calibrating their expectations of Donald Trump over the past few months.

Hopes that his actions may not match his rhetoric were dashed on Wednesday as he imposed sweeping tariffs on the US’ trading partners, ratcheting up protectionism to a level not seen in more than a century.

Markets were always going to respond to that but they are also battling with another problem: the lack of certainty when it comes to Trump.

More on Donald Trump

He is a capricious figure and we can only guess his next move. Will he row back? How far is he willing to negotiate and offer concessions?

Read more:
There were no winners from Trump’s tariff gameshow
Trade war sparks ‘$2.2trn’ global market sell-off

These are massive unknowns, which are piled on to uncertainty about how countries will respond.

China has already retaliated and Europe has indicated it will go further.

That will compound the problems for the global economy and undoubtedly send shivers through the markets.

Much is yet to be determined, but if there’s one thing markets hate, it’s uncertainty.

Continue Reading

US

Stock markets suffer sharp drops after Donald Trump announces sweeping tariffs

Published

on

By

Stock markets suffer sharp drops after Donald Trump announces sweeping tariffs

Stock markets around the world fell on Thursday after Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs – with some economists now fearing a recession.

The US president announced tariffs for almost every country – including 10% rates on imports from the UK – on Wednesday evening, sending financial markets reeling.

While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.

Trump tariffs latest: US stock markets tumble

All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.

A person works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 31, 2025. Pic: AP
Image:
The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP

By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.

Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.

More on Donald Trump

Worst one-day losses since COVID

As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.

It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

The latest numbers on tariffs

‘Trust in President Trump’

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.

“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”

Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”

He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?

Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’

The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.

He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.

Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.

He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”

Read more:
Do Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff numbers add up?

Tariffs about something more than economics: power

It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.

Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.

It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.

He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”

Continue Reading

Trending