US President George W. Bush arrived Friday at the still-smoking rubble where the World Trade Center's twin towers once stood, razed by a deadly terrorist attack.
The president arrived by helicopter and immediately walked towards a line of firefighters still looking for survivors among the estimated 5,000 people buried under the fallen towers.
Bush gave the thumbs-up sign as he greeted the yellow-jacketed firefighters, according to a pool report.
"I appreciate you, I appreciate you," he said repeatedly as he shook hands with the firefighters who have lost an estimated 300 or their own in the disaster.
Bush was expeted to move on to meet assembled relatives who also had lost their loved ones in Tuesday's terrorist strike in which two hijacked airliners slammed into the twin towers.
Bush earlier flew into McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, aboard Air Force One, which flew from Andrews Air Force Base near Washington escorted by fighter jets, and was then transferred by military helicopter to lower Manhattan.
Bush was greeted at McGuire by the mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, and the governor of New York state, George Pataki. The three men, all casually dressed in wind-breakers and hats against the sudden autumnal chill, embraced.
A decoy flew over the Hudson River into Manhattan ahead of Marine One, the presidential helicopter. Other helicopters circled overhead.
Security measures have been at their tightest since Tuesday, when the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed after being hit by two hijacked commercial airliners, and police stood at every street corner in Manhattan.
Nine members of the US Congress from New York, including Senator Charles Schumer, the senior senator for the state, accompanied the president.
Bush got into a black Secret Service four-wheeled drive vehicle, flying the US flag on one wing and the New York city blue, white and orange flag on the other, which drove off slowly into the devastated zone -- NEW YORK (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
