Defining images of the 9/11 attacks
Marking 20th anniversary of deadliest terror atrocity on US soil
![The South Tower of the World Trade Center is hit by the second hijacked plane](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ouNi6U66A7iNiWAYofRhig-415-80.jpg)
Twenty years ago today, the US was changed forever by a terror attack that struck at the heart of the nation’s most populous city.
The deadliest terror incident on US soil claimed the lives of 2,977 people in all, after two planes were flown into the World Trade Center, a third plane hit the Pentagon in Washington DC and a fourth, on which passengers fought back against the hijackers, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Here are some of the defining images of that day.
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![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/qdLKiKgqcB86kHEoRvjpLg-415-80.jpg)
A blasts rocks the South Tower of the World Trade Center as it is hit by the second hijacked plane
![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3rPAvfHq5Q6AwjR8b9Pi4g-415-80.jpg)
Stunned and fearful New Yorkers watch as the second plane hits the World Trade Center
![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/aB4waakpCayFPrRDk9QeqH-415-80.jpg)
A man falls from the World Trade Center after jumping to escape the burning building
![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/qJXo5g835BEP2DNfuy9Xfm-415-80.jpg)
People flee from the burning towers of the World Trade Center over Brooklyn Bridge
![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/TYQr9qoU2v8AfpCaneSFYj-415-80.jpg)
The North Tower, which was the first to be hit, collapses after the South Tower, 102 minutes after the fateful impact
![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/d4QcR37CcRamL9ZeScf7CF-415-80.jpg)
People try to shelter from the all-enveloping dust cloud after the collapse of both towers
![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/k6r9xgShav5NoGAbrPkuDj-415-80.jpg)
At 9.37am, 51 minutes after the North Tower was hit, a third plane crashes into the Pentagon building in Washington
![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/zUh5aDHFrj43r5gLCWF4E6-415-80.jpg)
George W. Bush speaks to Vice President Dick Cheney from on board Air Force One en route back to Washington from Florida on 11 September 2001
![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XLYT6TxoZxccVsD2kD4L95-415-80.jpg)
A security camera at Portland airport in Maine captures two hijackers, Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz Al-Omari, on the morning of 9/11
![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8ufrDiJcPgvm6K47G3ExQH-415-80.jpg)
The rebuilt One World Trade Center, which opened in 2014, towers over Manhattan
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