It seemed like a horror movie, but it was in fact terrible reality: 9 years ago today, Islamist terrorists hijacked American passenger planes and flew them into the two office towers of the World Trade Center in New York at high speed. The 411-metre-high towers burst into flames and collapsed. Around 40,000 people were in the 110 storeys on this morning. Many of them tried to save themselves by jumping out of the burning buildings. Shortly afterwards, another plane destroyed part of the American Ministry of Defence in Washington and a fourth crashed near the city of Pittsburgh. This plane was meant to hit the White House, the official residence and headquarters of the American president, but courageous passengers prevented the hijackers from carrying out their cruel plan.

All over the world, people saw TV pictures of this terrible day: the burning towers, people in panic, people running about helplessly. Two hundred and sixty six people were in the planes; altogether 3,056 people were killed. In New York, 343 firemen died trying to rescue injured people.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks, security measures everywhere were stepped up. Politicians tried to combat terrorism with stricter laws. Osama bin Laden and his terror organisation al Qaeda were suspected of being behind the attacks. The terrorists who carried them out were trained in Afghanistan and backed by the regime there. For this reason, the United States started a war against the then regime in Afghanistan in October 2001. The government was overthrown and a new government came to power. But Osama bin Laden, who was thought to be in Afghanistan, was not captured.

Terrorism has not been defeated to this day. There have been other terrible attacks, for example in Madrid in March 2004 and in London in 2005. In other countries, too, terrorist attacks still constantly occur in which many people lose their lives.