A piece of New York's fallen Twin Towers now has a lasting home in Bermuda as part of a permanent memorial to those killed in the world's worst terrorist attack.

The Island yesterday paid tribute to those who lost their lives on 9/11 with the unveiling of a statue incorporating part of a steel girder from the World Trade Center.

The families of Boyd Gatton and Rhondelle Cherie Tankard — Islanders who perished when two aircraft flew into the Twin Towers — were at the Botanical Gardens for a ceremony marking the sixth anniversary of the atrocity. Footage of the event can be seen at www.theroyalgazette.com. Those gathered were able to view the one ton steel and concrete structure built to remind Bermuda of the thousands of lives taken when 19 al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger jets on the morning of September 11, 2001.

The structure was the brainchild of US Consul Gregory Slayton and his wife Marina and was built at Bermuda College. It features two towers — one representing the US and the other Bermuda and the UK. The piece of steel — featured in a diamond at the centre — was donated by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has a home on the Island.

Mr. Slayton told those gathered yesterday, including several former Premiers and Police Commissioner George Jackson, that the five-sided base represented the Pentagon and that the grass around it represented the field in Pennsylvania where one of the planes crashed.

He said the statue featured a cross which "represents to me and so many that even in the worst possible circumstances there is hope, there is light and there is life". "We want to honour the memories of every single one of the victims," he added.

Acting Premier Paula Cox and Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield also spoke at the ceremony before a moment's silence was held.

Ms Tankard, an employee with Bermuda-based insurance company AON, started work at the World Trade Center just two days before 9/11. Aon has helped to fund the statue.

Mr. Gatton was working for Fiduciary Trust International. His former school, Saltus Grammar, marked yesterday's anniversary by laying a wreath at a tree planted in his memory.

Another former student Robert D. Higley II, who lived on the Island for three years in the 1980s, also perished in the Twin Towers on 9/11 while working for AON. School officials were not aware of his death when the memorial tree was planted. Headmaster Nigel Kermode said the school intended to change the plaque to feature both men's names.