Rescue workers at the site of the destroyed World Trace Center towers have today found air pockets but no survivors.
The mission is approaching the point where rescue transfers to recovery. Late last night the New York City Mayor Mr Rudolph Giuliani summed up the mood: "The hope of recovering people diminishes obviously everyday. We are not at the point, where we can see, that there is no hope of recovering anyone".
Firefighters, ironworkers, police and search dogs worked overnight and resumed work this morning. They managed to reach the lowest underground floors underneath the towers. Large air pockets were discovered but no survivors.
The mounds of rubble are still smoking and activity by the rescue workers has fed many smoldering fires with oxygen, hindering the rescue workers.
Serious concerns remain about 20 Irish people who have been reported missing by their families. The total number of missing stood at 4,957 a figure which has dropped by about 140 after officials rechecked lists.
Some 190 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center towers of whom 115 identified. No one have been pulled alive from the rubble since last Wednesday. Only five people have been rescued so far.
Following the attack on the Pentagon in Washington by another hijacked plane an additional 188 people remain missing presumed dead.
Just under 2 per cent of the 450,000 tonnes of rubble have been removed to the Muldoon Hills, a landfill on Staten Island 10 miles from attack site.