Pentagon reopens as death estimate reduced

12.00 pm

WASHINGTON - The US military's massive Pentagon headquarters, scarred by a terrorist strike, reopened for limited business today as rescue teams searched through rubble for up to 200 or more missing defence workers.

Dozens of firemen finally put out a stubborn roof fire on the blackened concrete structure more than 24 hours after a hijacked fuel-laden airliner slammed into a corner of the five-sided building.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that earlier estimates by fire officials that as many as 800 workers could be unaccounted for were apparently much too high.

"From everything that we currently know, the estimate that has been widely reported is considerably high. I hope and pray that it is," he said at a Pentagon news conference.

"It is folly to try to pretend there is a number before there is a number," Rumsfeld added after officials of the armed services said privately that perhaps about 200 military and civilian workers were missing in addition to 64 passengers and crew on the airliner.

President George W. Bush visited the Pentagon to inspect the damage today and said he was "overwhelmed" by the devastation.

"Coming here makes me sad on the one hand. It also makes me angry," said the president, standing in front of the building's blackened, gashed facade.

The Defense Department said in a statement that the area where the aircraft struck and burned sustained such catastrophic damage that "anyone who might have survived the initial impact and collapse could not have survived the fire that followed."

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said today the United States had "credible evidence" that the American Airlines 757 jet, hijacked shortly after taking off from nearby Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles, was supposed to crash into the White house instead of the Pentagon.

He declined to give any details.

One section of the five-story building, built during World War Two and never attacked during the decades of the Cold War, collapsed and burned when the aircraft sliced into the outer wall.

Four special "Urban Search and Rescue Teams" of about 60 members each began moving into parts of the damaged area of the Pentagon in the afternoon to shore up unstable wreckage and allow for a thorough search for possible survivors.

The hijacked jetliner's "black box" instrument package, containing data on its flight path was still buried in the rubble.

"It's like a game of pick-up sticks," Chief Mike Tamillow of the First Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department told Reuters. "If you pull out the wrong one they could all come crashing down. That's exactly what we're were trying to prevent."

The Pentagon, the world's largest government building, across the Potomac River from Washington in Virginia, was evacuated after Tuesday morning's devastating strike, but several thousand of the 23,000 military and civilian workers who normally work at the Pentagon returned to the job on Wednesday.

Shortly before noon (4 am NZ time), with concern growing that the fire might spread further in the wooden structure under the slate roof, many people began to leave the building on what Pentagon officials called a "false alarm" that an order had been given to evacuate. Those who had left quickly returned.

Rescue workers ran briefly from the damaged area outside at about the same time when an unidentified aircraft was reported to be approaching Washington. But that, too, was a false alarm

Tuesday's attack coincided with other hijackings that toppled the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, where thousands are believed to have perished.

Nearly half of the 27 km of Pentagon corridors remained shut for safety reasons, however, and officials said many of the 23,000 military and civilians who work there daily would not report on Wednesday because of damage to a large wedge of the building.

"The Pentagon is up and functioning," Pentagon chief spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told a news conference. But other officials said that a major portion of the building was shut down for safety.

Those officials said privately that it was important to Rumsfeld that the military of the world's only superpower was seen unbowed by the terrorist strike.

Arlington County, Virginia, Fire Chief Edward Plaugher, coordinating the firefighting operation, told reporters that it would take "many, many days" to search for possible survivors and recover the bodies of the dead.

- REUTERS

The New Zealand Herald has published another special edition with extensive coverage of the terrorist attacks in the USA. Look for your copy on sale throughout the Herald circulation area this afternoon.

Full coverage: Terror in America

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