Americans marked the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in a sombre, but more low key mood as memory of the cataclysm gradually fades.
As every year, relatives of the nearly 3,000 people killed when hijacked airliners slammed into New York’s World Trade Centre gathered at ground zero to read the names of the dead.
This year, though, no politicians were joining in the reading and security was less intense, in contrast to the 10th anniversary last year when US President Barack Obama headed a long list of VIPs at the ceremony.
June Pollicino, who lost her husband on 9/11, said: “I feel much more relaxed. After the ninth anniversary, those next days it started building up to the 10th anniversary. This year it’s different in that regard. It’s another anniversary we can celebrate in a discreet way.”
The day’s main event was the ritual reading of names – 2,983 in all, including the 9/11 victims and those killed in the precursor to those attacks, the 1993 car bombing of the World Trade Centre.
The reading paused for silence at the exact time each of the four planes hijacked by al-Qaeda turned into fireballs – two smashing into the Twin Towers, one into the Pentagon and one into a Pennsylvania field.