"This day has changed the world," German President Johannes Rau said. He had watched in shock as the burning Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapsed in New York.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed on September 11, 2001, when Islamist terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and turned them into deadly weapons.
11 Germans among the 9/11 victims
Germany’s head of state struggled to find the right words: "We do not know what political or social consequences what happened today will have — what we have watched unfold on our television screens in shock, barely able to comprehend or even reflect on it."
It soon emerged that the victims include people from 92 countries, among them 11 Germans.
