Kevan Jones, MP for Durham North

I was flying back from the TUC conference in Brighton. It was only when I landed and turned on the car radio that I heard about it. It didn't seem real - like a horror film. I was at the Pentagon in February and saw the damage. It must have been horrific for those involved.

Les Greenwood, station commander at Darlington Fire Station

I was on my way to a road traffic accident when the radio cut in saying there'd been an attack and a plane had ploughed into the twin towers. I thought it was a wind-up. When I got to the crash scene, a colleague confirmed the news and I was absolutely gobsmacked.

Yvonne Ridley, Stanley-born freelance journalist

I was in the office doing my expenses when I saw people gathering round the televisions, watching the twin towers on fire. I thought it was an awful accident, but when the second plane hit it was obvious that it was terrorists and I felt totally bewildered. Ten minutes later, I began making arrangements to go to New York.

Martin Callanan, North-East Euro MP

I was in a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels when someone gave us the news that the first plane had hit. I rushed up to my office and put on CNN and saw the second plane hit. We watched in horror as the towers came down. There was an added sense of tension as there was a student working with me whose father had an office in the World Trade Centre. He spent about an hour frantically making phone calls before finding out he was safe.

Doris Jones, Mayor of Darlington

I heard it on the radio at home and switched on the television. It was a horrific, sick feeling I felt. When the towers collapsed it was awful. This has taken our peace of mind away and people now are in more fear of what is going on around them than ever before.

George Jenkinson, Darlington taxi driver

I was parked in town and, on hearing the news, I went into a pub and asked the landlord to change from the racing channel to the news. When we saw the second plane fly into the towers everyone went quiet and could not believe what was going on. When I went back out to the taxi rank, everything had come to a halt.

Grandmother Eve Waterfall, from Darlington

I heard the news on my car radio. We were near home, so we dashed into the house and sat glued to the TV for about three hours. It was barbaric that so many innocent people were killed and an example of man's inhumanity to fellow man.

Paul "Goffy" Gough, North-East radio DJ

I was in the studio all day and had been doing an interview with Rob Lee, then of Newcastle United. Everyone was running around and I was thinking 'What's going on?' When you're in a studio, you are cut off from everything going on around you. We cut into our regular programmes and just went non-stop news. It was a very dark day.

John Burton, Prime Minister Tony Blair's agent

We were having a normal day in the Prime Minister's constituency office and when the news came through it was completely devastating. The pictures we saw were almost like a film. I realised then that everything had changed and things were not going to be the same again.

Peter Barron, editor of The Northern Echo

I had a lunchtime speaking engagement at a fundraising dinner for the NSPCC at Bedale Hall, in North Yorkshire, so my mobile phone had been switched off. After the lunch, I got in the car and telephoned my personal assistant, Sue Heath: "Anything been happening?" I asked, flippantly. I will never forget her words: "You'd better put the radio on - a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York. Oh God, it's just happened again." Driving up the A1, listening to the radio reports on the developing story, I found myself gripped by a sense of disbelief, fear - and history.

Rylstone WI calendar girl Tricia Stewart

I was in Salisbury for a meeting with the people at Ottakar's to talk to them about my book Calendar Girl, ahead of its publication, as they were going to stock it. When my husband, Ian, and I arrived at the hotel we had the television on and we were watching what we thought was just a light aircraft going into a tower and then we saw the second one happen and we were just so shocked. Everyone at the meeting was in a state of shock because they all seemed to know people in New York.

Redcar and Cleveland MP Vera Baird

I had been at the Old Bailey, meeting some former colleagues, and then went to have my hair done and there was a TV monitor in the doorway. There was a re-run of the plane going into the side of the tower and I thought it was a film and went and sat down. I was chatting away to the hairdresser and he never mentioned it for 20 minutes, and then a friend of mine rang and asked if I'd heard what was going on in America. I couldn't believe what was happening.

Lord Brian Mackenzie of Framwellgate, former Home Office advisor

I was at home waiting to see the Prime Minister speak at the TUC conference. He stood on the rostrum and said there had been a serious incident in New York and then I watched with increasing horror as it switched to live footage. When the second plane hit I realised that it wasn't a serious accident and that it was something significant, in a sense, a declaration of war.

Television agony aunt Denise Robertson

I'd been filming This Morning, and as I came out and got in the car the driver said that a plane had gone into one of the twin towers and I thought 'what a tragic accident'. I came home on the train and as people got on at different stations we were all talking about it. It broke the mould on British trains because instead of no one speaking, everyone was talking and asking people if they had any news. When I got home I saw all the carnage on television. I've just come back from New York and everyone was rallying around and the spirit was tremendous. If that was meant to bring New York to its knees, it had the reverse effect.

Anita Wynne, Darlington Lottery millionaire

I'd been into a travel agents looking at flight details to go to New York for Christmas. It was only when I got home that I saw what was happening on TV. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was like a disaster movie. Needless to say, we didn't go to New York then, but I did go in April and everyone was saying how nice it was to see the British come back to America.

Consett farmer and fuel protestor Andrew Spence

I had the lads out baling straw in the field. A colleague called from the People's Fuel Lobby and told us to switch the radio on. I just stood there transfixed for half an hour and then I told the lads to take the rest of the day off. I went home and watched TV for about four hours. I have to say, I did shed a tear.

Big Brother's Jonny Regan

It was really spooky. Myself, my brother David and our friend Susan were painting a backdrop for our group Reagan of the Manhattan skyline, and we were half way through doing the twin towers. We were at Trimdon Grange WMC and had the radio on, so we heard about it there. We were genuinely painting the twin towers as it happened.

Stuart Drummond, Mayor of Hartlepool

I was doing my old job manning the phones at a call centre in Hartlepool. When the news broke no one really knew the full story and we kept getting bits of information. I finished work at 5pm and watched the story unfold on television. I don't think I will ever forget the scenes of death and destruction.

Bishop of Durham, Michael Turnbull

I was working at Auckland Castle and someone rang up and said I must look at the television. We watched throughout the day and then the gravity of the situation began to sink in and you realised it was something where the whole world would never be the same again.

Paul Garvin, Chief Constable of Durham

I was at a conference to discuss handling public inquiries in the aftermath of major disasters. Part way through the afternoon, one of the organisers came on stage and said an aircraft had crashed into one of the twin towers and that it was on fire. We thought it was part of the exercise. To convince us that it was real, we were taken into a room next door and sat down and watched it on television. We couldn't believe it, and it was ironic that it had come at a time when we were discussing how to handle the aftermath of disasters.

Newcastle bodybuilder Janet Moore

It was my day off and I was up in the morning as usual training for competition. I never saw the news or heard anything about it until I picked my boyfriend, Peter, up and he told me. I'm not one for watching the news but we stayed glued to the television. We were both in tears.

Royalist Anita Atkinson, of Fir Tree, Bishop Auckland

I was in the kitchen making the tea but had the television on in the living room. I went in and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I thought it was a film and didn't realise it was real until I read the information on the bottom of the screen. I shouted for my husband to come in and he said the same thing - is it real? When the kids came home from school, the TV was on the whole time and we just sat there glued to it.

John Shuttleworth, Durham County Councillor

I was visiting friends at St John's Chapel, in Weardale, when it came on the television. I couldn't believe it. People are more naturally cautious now and wondering what is round the corner.

Rachel Spence, North-East Chamber of Commerce

I was driving to a meeting in Sunderland when I heard the news. I think the world just stood still for everybody, and it really hit home when I saw the pictures of people jumping out of the World Trade Centre, which was horrific.