Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

U.S.

NY marks 20th anniversary of '93World Trade Center bombing with a ceremony at 9/11 memorial

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • TRADE CENTER BOMBING
    Image 1 of 3

    FILE - In this file photo of Feb. 27, 1993, police and firefighters inspect the bomb creater inside an underground parking garage of New York's World Trade Center the day after an explosion tore through it. Twenty years ago a group of terrorists blew up explosives under one of the towers, killing six people and ushering in an era of terrorism on American soil.(AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) (The Associated Press)

  • 99ee3d43-TRADE CENTER BOMBING
    Image 2 of 3

    FILE - In this file photo of Feb. 26, 1993, the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City are shown in the aftermath of an explosion earlier that day. Twenty years ago a group of terrorists blew up explosives in an underground parking garage under one of the towers at the World Trade Center, killing six people and ushering in an era of terrorism on American soil. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm, File) (The Associated Press)

  • 97963a20-TRADE CENTER BOMBING
    Image 3 of 3

    FILE - In this file photo of Feb. 26, 1993, two New York City police officers help an injured women away from the scene of the World Trade Center explosion. Twenty years ago, a group of terrorists blew up explosives in an underground parking garage under one of the towers, killing six people and ushering in an era of terrorism on American soil. (AP Photo/Joe Tabacca, File) (The Associated Press)

NEW YORK – A ceremony honoring six people who died 20 years ago in the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center was being held Tuesday at the 9/11 memorial, where the twin towers were felled eight years later.

More than 1,000 people were injured in the 1993 blast in an underground garage below one of the towers. It was the first dramatic demonstration that "terrorism is theater and New York is the biggest stage," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said last week.

Six Islamic extremists were convicted of carrying out the bombing, including mastermind Ramzi Yousef. The 2001 attack brought down the World Trade Center, where more than 2,700 people died.

The ceremony was being held at the memorial, and a moment of silence will be observed at 12:18 p.m., the time when a truck bomb was detonated below the north tower.

At first, officials assumed the explosion on a chilly day was an accident. The initial report to police that day called it an apparent transformer explosion at the trade center.

Kelly raced to the scene, where the bomb planted in a parked Ryder van had left a crater half the size of a football field in the trade center garage, causing more than a half-billion dollars in damage.

"I remember seeing this tremendous sea of first-responder vehicles ... and smoke was coming out," said Kelly, who was on his first stint as police commissioner.

The trade center stood in the darkness that night for the first time since it opened in 1973.

It was only the next day, after a utility mishap was ruled out, that authorities "started to come to the conclusion it was bomb," Kelly said.

Investigators then found a vehicle identification number on a piece of the blown-up van that they traced to Mohammed Salameh, who had rented the van.