LOS ANGELES: The first comprehensive account of what exactly happened inside the World Trade Centre in the 102 minutes between the attack and the collapse of the towers has been published. It shows that many of those inside were calmly saying goodbye to their families and even giving them details of their life insurance policies.

At least 353 people trapped in the twin towers were able to make contact with family or friends after the first plane struck, and their reactions have been published in detail in the New York Times.

The report suggests that “scores of people lost chances to escape” because they ran back to pick up their purses, paused to make one more phone call or tried to help others. Of the 2,823 believed to have been killed, at least 1,946 died on the upper floors.

Edmund McNally, director of technology for Fiduciary Trust, whose offices stretched from the 90th to the 97th floors, rang his wife, Liz, and gave her details of his life insurance policies and employee bonus schemes.

“He said that I meant the world to him and he loved me,” said Mrs McNally. Then he rang back to tell her to cancel a trip to Rome that he had booked to celebrate her 40th birthday.

Over the past few days, meanwhile, Americans have been told to watch out for terrorists disguised as scuba divers and to be on their guard for attacks on the railways or in the subways, on the Brooklyn Bridge or the Statue of Liberty.

“Recent information has determined that various terrorist elements have sought to develop an offensive scuba diver capability,” the FBI said in a bulletin. There were also warnings that terrorists could target nuclear power stations or use light aircraft for attacks.

The welter of warnings has created a backlash as people complain that the advice is being given to obscure the mistakes made by the intelligence services in advance of September 11.

The New York Post, in an editorial under the headline “The Federal Bureau of Incompetence”, noted that “America is meant to be on the lookout for scuba-diving terrorists. Nothing more specific: just divers. One of these days, the FBI will issue a warning — and something will blow up. Then the agency will be able — finally — to say: “We told you so!”—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.