World Trade Center memorial burned

NEW YORK, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- A 26-year-old man is suspected of torching a New York chapel containing the remains of victims of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack, officials said.

Brian Schroeder apparently was drunk Saturday when he started the fire at Memorial Park, city officials alleged.

None of the thousands of unidentified remains was damaged but nearly all of the photos, notes and flowers left by visitors were either stolen or destroyed, CNN reported Sunday. The report did not say what happened to the missing items.

"Anyone who would set fire to the inviolable Memorial Park chapel is craven and contemptible," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a press release.

Schroeder, who was believed to be from out of town, faces charges of arson and criminal mischief, The New York Daily News reported Sunday.

"For family members this brings (the attack) right back up -- immediately and full force," said Charles Wolf, whose wife, Katherine, worked at the Trade Center and was never identified. "It cuts right inside."