Relatives remember 9/11 victims

Family members will walk in single file to the lowest level of the site where they will be able to lay flowers and pay their respects.

The procession was a compromise move following safety fears over the use of the site in Lower Manhattan.

Of the 2,973 people killed six years ago when terrorists hijacked aircraft and caused horrific destruction by flying them into New York's World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, 67 were British.

The ceremony will pause four times for silence, twice to mark the time when each plane hit the Twin Towers, and twice at the time when each tower fell.

Those who responded to the terrorist attacks and helped with the recovery efforts will read the names of the victims.

Later today, relatives of the British victims will attend a separate commemoration at the British Memorial Garden in New York's Hanover Square, about half a mile from the World Trade Centre site.

An honour guard of British police officers will fly in for the free community concert and ceremony to commemorate the sixth anniversary.

On September 11, 2001, a total of 266 passengers and crew were on board the four jets, two of which hit the World Trade Centre towers while one crashed near the Pentagon in Washington DC and the other came down near Pittsburgh.

In a measure of the carnage on the ground, five hours after the attacks there were no estimates of the overall death toll.