IT WAS three minutes out of a routine that made for an unprecedented scene in Hereford in the days following the horrific attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001.

It came after 19 men hijacked four commercial planes on the morning of September 11, 2001 and travelled towards major US landmarks including the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in an attack orchestrated by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

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2,977 lives were lost as a result of the attacks which sparked irreversible changes to the world, not least the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

Hereford Times:

At exactly 11am on Friday, September 14, a sorrowful hush fell over Hereford's High Town, as hundreds of people observed a 180-second silence to remember the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Where, moments earlier, there had been the bustle of busy life, all was still for three minutes as Herefordians reflected on the grief and horror of the disaster.

Hereford Times:

The silence, which was observed across the county, saw shops closing their doors out of respect for the victims and the Union Flag flying at half-mast atop Hereford Town Hall.

Hereford Times:

And at Wyeside, Hereford's Greyhound rugby team and opponents Market Drayton also stood in silence before their match.

Hereford Times:

The attacks led a county clergyman with personal experience of another terrorist outrage to issue a plea to Prime Minister Tony Blair for a restrained response.

Rev. John Mosey, from Cradley, lost his teenage daughter Helga when Pan-Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie in 1988.

He had been conducting a seminar on dealing with the relatives and deceased of a major disaster in York when the news of the attacks broke and wrote to Mr Blair, who had made an immediate offer of unqualified support to US retaliation, urging the 'utmost care' in what came next.

In his message to the Prime Minister, he said: "Clearly the civilised world has to support the US in taking drastic and effective action to root out this network of evil.

"But I beg you to remember that my daughter and the other 269 murdered at Lockerbie were undeniably victims of a reprisal against aggressive American policies - either in the Gulf or against Tripoli earlier.

"The utmost care must be taken that whatever path is eventually pursued is successful and does not harm innocent people thus producing another batch of terrorists. We must find a better way of dealing with our international differences than simply picking up a bigger stick with which to beat the other guy."

In the week following the attack, Herefordshire's firefighters raised £15,000 for victims of New York, while Leominster's crews raised more than £4,000 collecting outside the town's Morrison's supermarket and by going around the town's pubs and clubs.