FIRE stations across Cambridgeshire will observe a minute’s silence today to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Almost 3,000 people were killed in the USA during the terrorist attacks orchestrated by Al-Qaeda on the morning of September 11 in 2001. This number included 343 heroic firefighters who responded to thousands of emergency calls.

The world could only watch in horror as news footage beamed pictures of two hijacked planes flying into the World Trade Centre in New York around the globe. Both towers collapsed to the ground within two hours.

A third hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon while a fourth, heading towards Washington, crashed into a field near Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to take control of the United Airlines Flight 93.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service will mark the anniversary by observing a minute’s silence at its ‘wholetime’ fire stations in Cambridge, Peterborough and Huntingdon and in fire control at the service’s headquarters in Huntingdon.

Each station will go silent for 60 seconds at 1.46pm - the UK time when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the Twin Towers - the first of the hijacked planes used as missiles on the day that 19 terrorists boarded four passenger jets.

This silence will be delayed if firefighters are attending an incident at this time.

Graham Stagg, Chief Fire Officer for Cambridgeshire, said: “It is important that all our staff are given the opportunity to pay their respects to the victims of the terrorist attacks in which we lost so many of our American colleagues.”