IN SCHOOLS, in offices, in homes, and on streets across Europe, the people fell silent yesterday.

They stayed locked in private thought for three minutes which seemed to take an age, reflecting on the enormity of what had happened, and focusing on their loved ones.

After the most evil of acts, this was humanity at its best - people uniting in heartfelt compassion for others.

Hope shone through the silence because yesterday's international day of mourning showed how much the vast majority care. And it underlined the fact that those who support this unbelievable atrocity are tiny in number.

It is that majority of decent, loving people all over the world who need and deserve the most careful and balanced of responses to what happened in America this week.

Children are crying in their beds, terrified at the prospect of war; their parents reassuring them while suppressing their own private fears. As The Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday: "We must be guided by higher goals than mere revenge."

All the signs are that America, supported by Britain, is preparing to strike back. Innocent lives have been lost in a way that it is impossible to understand.

But many more innocent lives will be at stake in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.

The world waits and the world hopes that common sense prevails.