Up to 150 New Zealanders thought to be living or working in New York remain unaccounted for following yesterday morning's terrorist attack on the city's World Trade Center.
One New Zealander is known to have died. Alan Beavan, aged 49, a lawyer who had lived in New York for several years,was a passenger on one of the highjacked United Airlines planes.
Up to 60 Australians and up to 900 Britons were believed missing.
New Zealand's ambassador in New York, Don MacKay, said that he was aware of "about 150" Kiwis whose whereabouts could not be confirmed.
"One of them who we are particularly concerned about was working in the vicinity of the World Trade Center," he said this morning from the New Zealand Mission to the United Nations, where he is based.
But he would not identify that person, saying that the inquiry into their location had come from New Zealand, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which is logging calls from people seeking New Zealanders who are unaccounted for in New York.
Any information about Kiwis thought to be missing would be first directed back to those who had sought the information.
But he was anxious to stress his comments did not mean that 150 New Zealanders "were dead or injured - there are 150 whom we have not been able to contact.
"I don't want to start rumours about New Zealanders killed or missing. Phones are down in parts of the city, and some people have moved out of south Manhattan."
The New Zealand Herald will publish another special edition this morning with extensive coverage of the terrorist attacks in the USA. Look for your copy on sale throughout the Herald circulation area at noon.
