Guyanese at home and abroad have been affected by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) yesterday in downtown Manhattan.

One Guyanese, Aftab Karimullah, an old boy of Queen's College who hails from Wakenaam and works in the World Trade Center area gave this description of what he witnessed on his way to work. He sent this account after walking home from Wall St over the Williamsburg bridge to Brooklyn.

"I was trapped on Nassau St and Maiden Lane when the first building collapsed. This is about three blocks in the line of sight of the WTC.

"The building I was in front of started shaking and I heard a rumble like an earthquake. I ran behind a column next to the Chase building.

"Within seconds a thick wall of smoke, debris, soot and other things that make breathing difficult, descended the canyon-like streets in the area. There was no escape. It was pitch black. I knelt on the street behind the column.

"For about five minutes I pulled my tie down and covered my nose. There was literally no oxygen. Then I said this is it. Time to make peace. I started breathing in slow measured breaths. I didn't know when the pall would lift. Couldn't see anything. After a further five minutes when visibility was adequate to move about I went into the evacuation floor of the building near me. I was coughing muck. I was concerned about asphyxiation more than anything.

"Patrol people directed us to the East River. I made a beeline, however, and proceeded to the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and into my building. After five minutes the second building collapsed and another thick wall of smoke and debris descended in the area. I went outside and had to scurry back in. You were breathing in burning things. I was covered with muck.

"If this sounds dramatic, it ain't. It was scary. We didn't know whether there would have been land-based bombs in the area.

"Fortunately the NYSE area is well fortified. There were people stumbling around me when you couldn't see your palm.

Anyhow I believe I'm okay. I have to go get my lungs checked out. My eyes were burning red and sticky. It was like a war zone.

"This had to have been a well planned and coordinated assault. Probably years in the making. The last attack on the WTC happened during (George) Bush senior's watch.

"I shudder to think what the casualty (figure) is. There are about 50,000 workers in the two towers. The downtown Manhattan area is like a cattle market at that time of the morning."

A large number of Guyanese work at the World Trade Center and others use the underground station there on their way to work in other parts of Manhattan.

President Bharrat Jagdeo in remarks on the incident yesterday said that the US embassy would be putting measures in place to help in providing information to Guyanese about their relatives in New York who work in the area of the World Trade Center. He said too the Guyana Consulate in New York would also put measures in place to help in ascertaining the well-being of Guyanese.