September 11 memorial services in London and New York

Thousands attended memorial services for the victims of 11 September in London and New York yesterday. In New York, Cardinal Edward Egan led the service at Ground Zero attended by a crowd of more than 9,000. In Westminster cathedral, in London, a special Mass for the ex-pat American community was concelebrated by the Bishop of Galveston-Houston, Bishop Joseph Fiorenza with Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor. The service in New York was held on a temporary stage erected under the blackened wreckage of the two Trade Centre buildings. Some relatives of the victims wore the jackets and headgear of the police and fire units to which their loved ones belonged. Others clutched photographs of the people they lost. The New York Times reported: 'Many wiped their eyes as tenor Andrea Bocelli sang Schubert's Ave Maria, his voice rising along with the smoke against the apocalyptic backdrop. Soprano Renee Fleming sang Amazing Grace' and God Bless America as the sun sank in the October sky.' Later, the paper said, families were given wooden urns with soil from Ground Zero - for many, the only tangible remnant of their loved ones they they may ever have. While more than 4,000 people are missing in the gray rubble of dust, mangled metal and wires, only about 500 bodies have been recovered. Cardinal Egan said: "They were innocent, and they were brutally, viciously, unjustly taken from us. We are in mourning, Lord. We have hardly any tears left to shed.'' After the service many people handed bouquets and wreaths to state troopers standing guard, asking them to place the flowers in the fence. In London, Bishop Fiorenza thanked people in Britain for their "expressions of solidarity and friendship" He compared those who joined in the rescue attempts at Ground Zero to "the brave men and women who assisted the wounded and dying during the many nights of Nazi bombardment that tried to destroy London.