WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 -- A visibly upset NewYork Mayor Rudolph Giuliani reluctantly told reporters that several high-ranking fire officials were killed in Tuesday's deadly attack on the World Trade Center, while scattered reports following the Pentagon blast listed six dead and numerous others injured.
Giuliani said chief of special operations command Ray Downey, who went to Oklahoma City to help in the 1995 bombing there, was killed, as were First Deputy Commissioner William Feehan and a chaplain, the Rev. Michael Judge. Department chief Peter Ganci was also a casualty of the attack.
However, the mayor said he is still holding out hope that rescue workers will find survivors in the rubble of the demolished Twin Towers, destroyed after unknown assailants hijacked two commercial airplanes and crashed into them.
"Yes, there is still hope," a weary-looking Giuliani told reporters. "There's hope people are still alive."
Giuliani and police officials have said that several people, including police officers, have been rescued from the debris.
Police have also said several people are still alive in one of the ruined buildings. CBS reported that victims trapped in the rubble are calling police for help on their mobile phones.
The mayor said that thousands of volunteers have arrived in lower Manhattan to help dig people out of the wreckage. He said the operation has not been slowed by the dark of night as the area is now illuminated with auxiliary lights. But the rescue effort has been hampered by debris -- some blocks of which are 100 feet high -- fires and surrounding buildings rocked by the blast.
Still reluctant to give a more specific number than "thousands" when speaking of a death toll, Giuliani said the number was going to be "very, very high." Earlier in the day, the mayor said area hospitals reported six fatalities.
A makeshift morgue has been set up several blocks from where the Twin Towers once stood to deal with the fatalities.
"The morgue is operating, and we don't have a count yet, and we really don't want to hazard a guess on that until somewhat later," said Giuliani.
Officials in New York City have announced that at least 200 firefighters and 78 police officers are missing and presumed dead after today's terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
Police and fire department spokesmen have said the men and women disappeared when the twin 110-story towers collapsed, reported New York's Channel 7 News.
"I had a number of people lost., [but] we're still hopeful," said New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerrick. "We do know that there are people in the building that are alive. There are some police officers."
Kerrick said two trapped police officers are alive "in the building" but couldn't give details. He also said, "A number of people were taken to hospitals," referring to police officers.
Passengers and crew onboard the two flights that collided with the buildings are believed to be dead.
One passenger on board the American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles was identified as Daniel C. Lewin, 31, co-founder of Akamai Technologies.
The flight was carrying 81 passengers, nine crew members and two pilots when it crashed into one of the Trade Center's twin towers, killing everyone on board.
United Airlines Flight 175, also from Boston to Los Angeles, was carrying 56 passengers, seven crew members and two pilots, when it crashed into the second tower a short while later. There were no survivors from that flight as well.
Reports from the New York said there are 600 people at local hospitals, with 150 of them critically injured.
Hundreds of so-called walking wounded flooded the streets northward, heading for hospitals for treatment. Some 2,000 others, appearing dazed, were ferried to Liberty State Park, where an emergency center is treating injuries
In some areas, sanitation vehicles were being used to transport the injured because all ambulances were occupied.
St. Vincent Hospital, which handled most of the injured during the February 1973 bombing of the World Trade Center, has treated 319 patients, 55 in critical condition. Forty-five of the patients are firefighters, emergency workers and police officers. Three people -- including one firefighter -- died during surgery.
Three others were dead on arrival. St. Vincent's is now only taking the most seriously injured.
A spokeswoman for the hospital said she expects patients to continue arriving over the next few days and that some people may still be trapped alive under the rubble.
New York's Roman Catholic Archbishop Cardinal Edward Egan was performing last rites outside the facility.
Other hospitals reportedly put out calls for extra doctors and nurses from neighboring states. Bellevue hospital said it had two fatalities following the blasts, one of which was a firefighter. They are currently treating 159 patients, 16 of which are children, said a spokesman for the hospital.
A New York State Emergency Management Office spokesman told United Press International that the National Guard will be on site Wednesday to assist rescue personnel and help clear streets. "Our priority is to assist anyone still buried in the rubble and to retrieve bodies," said the spokesman.
Earlier Tuesday, the New York Port Authority estimated 25,000 people might have been inside the building at the time of the crashes. Some 54,000 people worked at the World Trade Center complex. An estimated 150,000 visited its observation towers and shopping centers each day.
Gov. George Pataki, confronted by reporters as he emerged from a private visit to St. Partrick's Cathedral, was asked if he was praying for the victims of the attack.
"Yes, it's important to say a few prayers. All New Yorkers should be praying for the people who will not come home, the children who have a father not come home, the child who might not have a mother come home," said Pataki with tears in his eyes "Prayer is an important part right now."
"I know people who are missing and am very concerned," he said. "This is one of the darkest days in American history, but we are going to get beyond this."
Near Washington, details were sketchy surrounding the apparent terrorist attack on the Pentagon shortly after the World Trade Center attacks. Many thousand people work at the Pentagon.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said all of the service chiefs and secretaries and the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are accounted for.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was in the building at the time of the crash and remains there directing the Pentagon's efforts, in consultation with President George W. Bush and the national security staff.
The Pentagon has not released an official list of causualties.
But shortly after the attack, a military officer at the scene said he had been told there were six fatalities. An Arlington County Fire Department personnel said there were 34 or 35 people injured in the attack.
American Airlines Flight 77 struck the west side of the Pentagon about 9:39 a.m. Tuesday morning. The plane's 58 passengers, four flight attendants and two pilots were killed in the crash.
Barbara Olson, a frequent commentator on CNN and wife of U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, was aboard the plane, calling her husband before it crashed into the Pentagon.
Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center, said three servicemen injured in the Pentagon crash had been admitted as of Monday evening, hospital spokeswoman Michele Hammonds said.
Two of the men -- a 29-year-old Navy lieutenant on active duty and a 46-year-old retired Navy commander-- were in critical condition. The younger officer suffered second- and third-degree burns, while the retiree was treated for burns and "respiratory distress." The third victim, a 44-year-old Army lieutenant colonel, was in fair condition suffering from smoke inhalation and a possible broken ankle.
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which serves as the major hospital for the Washington area's many military personnel, was expecting to receive more service members injured at the Pentagon and initially sent to other hospitals, Hammonds said.
A total of 36 victims were treated at the Pentagon's official hospital, Virginia Hospital Center Arlington, spokeswoman Kathryn Hughes said. As of 6 p.m., six of those patients had been discharged, eight were in intensive care and two were still in surgery, she said. The Virginia Hospital Center Arlington said it had received 31 injured people by late afternoon. Of those, six were treated and released and 15 were admitted for further treatment. The other 10 patients were being evaluated.
Many of those treated had suffered only minor burns and cuts, Hughes said.
None of the Pentagon victims treated at the Arlington hospital died.
No other information about the patients was available. According to a hospital spokeswoman, updated casualties figures would not be available until early Wednesday. The hospital, located 7 miles from the Pentagon, treats both civilians and service members.
"We had extra surgeons in and about 50 extra physicians on hand" to treat the injured, she said. "We were well-staffed to handle the emergency."
A spokeswoman for Inova Health Systems said three of the company's five area hospitals treated 18 victims from the Pentagon. Of those, one patient -- a Virginia state trooper -- was in critical condition with smoke inhalation, 11 others were in fair condition and six in good condition, including four firefighters. Another patient, a civilian Pentagon employee, was treated for minor injuries and released.
A casualty center at nearby Fort Myer's Henderson Hall was set up to attend to the wounded and dead.
A U.S. Marine, Pfc. Gary Shaw, 25, told United Press International the plane crash "sounded like a jet jumping the sound barrier, but the boom was actually the Pentagon," as the plane hit the building.
Pentagon employees should call to sign into a "muster list," which will help determine the number of casualties and who remains missing.
Earlier Tuesday, Pentagon officials said they were deploying several ships to New York to aid in the treatment of those wounded in the Twin Towers attack. The aircraft carriers USS John F. Kennedy and George Washington, the crusier Monterrrey and the USNS Comfort -- a medical ship -- were sent to New York. Ships out of Norfolk, Va., were also sent to the city.
