Emergency rescue workers on Wednesday pulled survivors from the rubble of the World Trade Center, six firefighters and a policeman who was said to be seriously burned, reported CNN.
Battling darkness and debris from the twin World Trade Center towers, a fresh wave of emergency rescue personnel entered the wreckage at about midnight Tuesday, hoping to find some trace of survivors in the once-bustling area of lower Manhattan.
The twin towers collapsed about an hour after they were hit by separate hijacked jetliners.
Reports of cellular phone calls placed late Tuesday from people trapped inside the rubble offered a glimmer of hope.
Late Tuesday, three people, a man and two police officers, were rescued after making just such a call.
They first attempted to call the emergency operator in New York but were unable to make a connection.
The man then called his sister in Pennsylvania, who called 911 and was able to convey enough information about the whereabouts of the trio to bring about their rescue, authorities said.
"It was a rare positive note to a sad and tragic day," a local 911 official said.
Eight specially trained urban search and rescue teams were dispatched to New York and four others to Washington, where more than 100 people and perhaps as many as 800 were unaccounted for after a similar hijacked-jetliner attack on the Pentagon, said the network.
But as rescuers began the arduous task of sifting through the rubble, they were unsure what the new day might reveal.
Approximately eight stories of the World Trade Center's northeast tower were twisted but standing, while the rubble of the other tower smoldered. Rescuers are focusing their efforts on those eight floors, using a walkway around the first level of the building in an attempt to gain access to the floors above – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
