The photos and videos that the United States did not want to disseminate on the attacks against the Twin Towers

United States this Saturday commemorates the 20th anniversary of the attack on twin towers, the worst terrorist attacks in its history, a fact that in many ways changed the course of history not only in the country but in the whole world. Although the impact of planes hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists and the fall of skyscrapers were recorded live on September 11, 2001Many images captured by first-hand witnesses to the attacks were only known in recent years.

This week, the U.S. Secret Service shared footage “Never seen before” taken by one of his agents: “the towers of the World Trade Center after the two planes hit the buildings”.

In another photo you can see the moment when starts to crumble one of the twin towers.

Among the previously unseen footage are two of the Secret Service parking lot at their New York City offices. There you can see armored vehicles that were destroyed after the attacks.

Mark Laganga’s shocking 9/11 video

But one of the most shocking testimonies came in 2018, when the footage that the CBS cameraman Mark La Ganga had taken that day, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. For almost half an hour LaGanga recorded everything that happened in what would later be known as “Ground Zero”, including the north tower fall from the World Trade Center.

They broadcast footage recorded by CBS cameraman Mark LaGanga.

In the heartbreaking footage, police, firefighters and several survivors are seen disoriented and covered in dust, walking in the middle of a apocalyptic landscape of rubble, twisted iron, broken paper and glass. The normally busy streets of Manhattan are empty.

The harshest footage comes around the eighteenth minute, when LaGanga record the collapse of the north tower and you see how people run to escape the rubble and a black cloud that engulfs everything.

Minutes of darkness ensue, during which the cameraman can be heard coughing and spitting out the dust that has filled his mouth and lungs. Then La Ganga cleans the lens and, in the middle of a surreal landscape and under an orange light, an office worker covered in dust appears. “Collapse. The upper floors collapsed. I saw it explode and started to run. Thank goodness I’m 69 but I can still run, ”said the man.

A year after the LaGanga videos, there are more horror postcards that have come out, which doctor Emil Chynn taken in the hours following the terrorist attack. He was one of the first doctors to arrive at the World Trade Center building complex.

You he walked his dog like every day when seen in the distance the dense columns of black smoke from the World Trade Center. Surprised, he decided to go there to see what was going on. Faced with the magnitude of the drama unfolding before his eyes, decided to stay to help the victims with other doctors, firefighters, police and other volunteers who were there and established a first sorting center.

“When I saw the columns of smoke coming out of the center I knew I had to go see what was going on. working in a hospital during a previous terrorist attack, so I understood that it would be more useful if I was there in case people were injured, ”recalls Chynn.

“As soon as I arrived, I found myself surrounded by smoke, debris and papers that covered the entire floor. After about 30 minutes of searching the buildings, I spotted the remains of the Twin Towers, which were only three stories high, ”he said, adding:“ It was a horrific scene. There were people who were trying to remove rubble and others who were cleaning body parts all over. I did what I could to help. “

Chyn stayed on the site for a week, during which time she took several images, which she ultimately decided to share. “I felt like I had to. As painful as this moment is, the photos show the pure compassion people felt for other strangers. “

In this sense, the doctor called on the public not to be left alone with the feeling of dismay at what happened and to understand that, even in a situation of these characteristics, “A city came together and many risked their lives to help people they didn’t even know”.

Twenty years later, the emotion is still alive in the USA. President Joe biden and his wife Jill will participate in the tribute ceremony in New York, during which, as every year, the names of 2,977 people who died in the attacks. But the deaths did not end that day. Since 2001, it is estimated that around 3,900 people died from illnesses linked to the attacks, like cancers caused by toxic dust and fumes that have covered the area for weeks.

“The number of people whose deaths appear to have been caused by 9/11-related illnesses now exceeds the number of people who died on September 11Said Rupa Bhattacharyya, director of the victims compensation fund. “The tragedy of September 11 continues”, he stressed.