From London to Los Angeles, the world stood still

From a coffee shop on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles to the chaos of a Washington street, Americans across the country entered a state of altered reality. Much as with the 1963 assassination of President John Kennedy, or the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, the nation screeched into slow motion as people took in a tragic intersection of life and history.

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But while those shocking events were seared into the American psyche - never letting us forget exactly where we were and what we were doing when they happened - Tuesday was different.

As images of destruction flooded TV screens in homes, businesses, and schools everywhere - and it became clear that the US was under the most massive, coordinated terrorist attack in the nation's history - there was a jarring, collective realization that this is not just about history. It's about the future.

"It's the end of innocence," says Robert Goldman, an expert on international law and terrorism at American University in Washington. "The sense of security we have had has been very much broken."

The events of Sept. 11 - a day to be emblazoned in memory forevermore - halted the country in its tracks. In many big cities, workers and schoolchildren were sent home. The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading. Disneyland did not open. All departing commercial flights were grounded - for the first time in US history - and incoming international jets were sent to Canada.

Across America, mostly silent crowds stood like unwilling captives in front of television sets, numbed by what they saw.

"This really does look like the apocalypse," says Joe Stein, a construction worker in a breakfast eatery in Los Angeles, who sat glued to a CNN report on television. "This is a day when I am glad not to live in Washington or New York. But then again, we might be next."

The sheer magnitude of the strike is likely to exact a huge psychological toll, but experts say the biggest impact will come from a fear of the unknown - a worry that we have not yet seen the worst.

"Terrorism is posing an insidious threat to the United States. This is war in the shadows," says Yona Alexander of the Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies at the Arlington, Va.-based Potomac Institute. "It is not a question of 'if' but of 'when' the terrorists will use biological, chemical, and nuclear capabilities."

In Boston's business district, cellphones were engaged everywhere as people rushed to evacuate the Hancock and Prudential towers. "This is worse than Pearl Harbor," says Kiran, a Morgan Stanley Witter employee, ashen-faced. "Our offices [in New York] are completely gone," he said, worrying about colleagues who were undergoing training there.

Closer to the strike, in Washington, anxiety filled the voices of government employees evacuating their buildings and struggling to find a way home. "Terrorists want you to live in fear, and this will definitely do that," says Larry Nix, who, facing subway shut-downs, planned to walk four miles to his home in Lanham. "This is beyond anything you can think of."

For many in Washington and New York, the morning devolved into frantic calls to worried relatives, efforts to get home, and especially to pick up and reassure children.

"I'm trying to be composed. I'm trying to be safe and just get to my kids," says Lisa Holland, waiting exasperated in a D.C. traffic jam as she headed to pick up her three children in Fort Washington, Md. "It makes you want to cry," she says of the destruction.

Indeed, as many schools closed around the country, parents grappled not only with their own shock, but also with what to tell their youngsters.

"Mommy, it looks just like Pearl Harbor on TV," said an 11-year-old boy before leaving for school in Los Angeles. "Is this Pearl Harbor all over again?"

In Philadelphia, parents were urged to talk with their children about their fears. "I just put them in front of the television watching cartoons," says a Maryland mom.

Yet amid the confusion and despair, Americans began responding to the crisis, with prayer as well as concrete actions to help victims of the strike.

At a blood bank near Boulder, Colo., Carol Krueger, an artist, stood in a line of more than 100 people - senior citizens, young women in college, and parents with toddlers - who turned out to donate blood. "This is the only thing I actually can do," she said.

• Reported by staff writers Mark Sappenfield in San Francisco, Stephen Humphries and Kim Campbell in Boston, Gloria Goodale in Los Angeles, and contributors Craig Savoye in St. Louis and Bob Struckman in Boulder, Colo.

Reports from around the world

Most Chinese had not heard of the American tragedy by midnight Beijing time, noon on the US East Coast. Major news outlets in China had not yet picked up the story, and the Chinese foreign ministry had not prepared a statement.

Chinese contacted by phone who were aware of the news expressed disbelief and shock.

"The trade tower is full of ordinary people, it is not a military target. There are also a lot of Chinese businesses in the World Trade Tower," says Prof. Mei Renyi of Beijing Foreign Studies University. "Great sympathy goes to the American people. I think most Chinese are shocked."

Some Chinese expect a special meeting of the Communist Party Politburo on Wednesday. "The impact on the world situation is immeasurable," says one Chinese official, who declined to be identified further. "So my guess is that our highest leaders will meet. The terrorist situation is something that all governments in the world will need to work on."

Security has been stepped up outside the US Embassy in China, and by midnight, news programs here were showing extensive coverage and images of the US disaster.

– Robert Marquand

Israel
Even among Israelis and Palestinians, who are no strangers to cataclysmic violence, people were stunned. "Wherever you go people are glued to television channels, just watching and listening and trying to absorb," says Hisham Ahmed, who teaches international relations at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank.

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat took a moment Tuesday to express his feelings. "We are completely in shock, completely in shock," he said to reporters. "It's unbelievable."

Staffers at Israel's foreign ministry were transfixed by events. "It makes any act of terrorism pale by comparison," says Daniel Sheck, a senior ministry official. "This kind of thing has only happened in the movies and even there is always a hero to save the day. I guess Schwarznegger was off duty."

The work of the ministry – where are diplomats have been trying to organize a meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Mr. Arafat – was on hold. "This is a new world," Mr. Sheck says. "Everything is at a standstill. I don't think anyone is planning anything – they're just waiting to see how the dust settles."

– Cameron W. Barr

Japan

In Japan, there was blanket coverage of the shocking news. Pubs and convenience stores that normally play only music were tuned to coverage of the event, and Japanese with friends and family in New York City were desperately trying to contact their friends – often to no avail. Telephones were tied up.

Several major Japanese banks with offices in the World Trade Center said they were trying to get in contact with their employees, with limited success.

Thirty-seven Japanese companies have offices in the World Trade Center buildings, Kyodo News, a Japanese news agency, reported.

The Industrial Bank of Japan reported that about 350 people working for it and Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank were safely evacuated before the buildings collapsed.

But many Japanese companies with offices in the buildings said they could not reach their employees. These companies include Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank, Sumitomo Marine and Fire Insurance Co., and San-In Godo Bank, as well as several other manufacturers and insurance companies located there, Kyodo reported.

Officials of San-In Godo Bank said they were not able to get into contact with the branch before the buildings collapsed. Asahi Bank said it similarly could not make contact with any employees. A Fuji Bank spokesman said the bank received a report from New York saying there are no casualties among its workers.

At 1 a.m. in Tokyo, US Embassy spokesman Patrick Linehan said: "We issued a warning on Friday that we had received a threat to US military forces, installations and places that military personnel gather. That statement was issued by the US Embassy in Japan, and the US Embassy in Korea issued the same warning, and we said people should exercise caution."

The Japanese government has set up an emergency line and a contact headquarters at its foreign ministry here and in New York, to help facilitate searches for Japanese citizens and exchange other information.

– Ilene Prusher

Quotes from around the world

"...we must send a clear and unambiguous message to the world that the people of America are completely, 100 percent united."
– Former President Clinton, traveling in Australia

"I beg God to sustain you and the American people in this hour of suffering and trial."
– Pope John Paul II, in a letter to President Bush

"As for those who carried out these attacks ... their barbarism will stand as their shame for all eternity."
– British Prime Minister Tony Blair

"If they need assistance ... Canada will always be available."
– Prime Minister Jean Chrétien

"Israel will do all it can, and expresses condolences to the victims of the tragedy."
– A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon

"We understand the feelings of the American people better than anyone. I want to tell the American people in Russia's name: 'We are with you.'"
– President Vladimir Putin

"I'm very sad. We denounce terrorism. We denounce terrorism under any circumstances."
– Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt

"As a society that has suffered from the effects of terrorism for over 30 years, we have some understanding of the hurt being felt by the American people."
– Reg Empey and Seamus Mallon, leaders of Northern Ireland's Protestant/Catholic coalition government

"There is no cause that justifies this type of immoral and inhumane act ..."
– A statement by the American Muslim Council

"In such moments, cool and reasoned judgment is more essential than ever .... no cause can be advanced by terror."
– UN secretary-General Kofi Annan