Defining images of the 9/11 attacks

Robert Giroux/Getty Images

(Image credit: Smoke pours from the twin towers of the World Trade Center)

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.

Here are some of the defining images of that day.

A blasts rocks the South Tower of the World Trade Center as it is hit by the second hijacked plane

Stunned and fearful New Yorkers watch as the second plane hits the World Trade Center

A man falls from the World Trade Center after jumping to escape the burning building

People flee from the burning towers of the World Trade Center over Brooklyn Bridge

The North Tower, which was the first to be hit, collapses after the South Tower, 102 minutes after the fateful impact

People try to shelter from the all-enveloping dust cloud after the collapse of both towers

At 9.37am, 51 minutes after the North Tower was hit, a third plane crashes into the Pentagon building in Washington

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

A security camera at Portland airport in Maine captures two hijackers, Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz Al-Omari, on the morning of 9/11

The rebuilt One World Trade Center, which opened in 2014, towers over Manhattan

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