It is 10 years since the World Trade Centre attacks in New York. As this Sunday’s anniversary nears, Dermot Finch, from Clitheroe, tells for the first time his dramatic account of how he escaped as the twin towers came down.

FOR one Lancastrian, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks will bring a return to Ground Zero for the first time.

Dermot Finch was working as a government official in Washington but was visiting New York for a meeting on September 11, 2001.

As he sat down to breakfast in his room at a hotel connected to the World Trade Centre, he heard the first plane, American Airlines Flight 11, crash into the tower above him at 8.46am US time.

He was able to escape but was forced to take cover in Wall Street’s New York Stock Exchange as the towers collapsed.

The 43-year-old, who grew up in Billington and lived in Whalley and Clitheroe, was seconded from the Treasury to work for the British Embassy in Washington at the time.

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the former Clitheroe Royal Grammar school pupil said events of that day led him to forge a strong relationship with the US and friends there, and he is now planning a visit to Ground Zero.

On the day of the attack he was staying in the Marriott Hotel in the World Trade Centre complex for a conference and was having breakfast in his room when the first plane hit.

The former Whalley Primary School pupil, said: “All I could see was falling debris. It smelt like a bomb. Then it came on the TV, ‘a plane has hit’.

“It was strange, I packed then I went down to the lobby with my suitcase.

“But down there it was like a disaster movie. We were being escorted out when the second plane hit, then everybody realised it wasn’t an accident.

“Everyone was convinced there was going to be about 10 planes on the way.

“I still had my suitcase, it was mad. There was stuff falling and the police obviously knew it was more than just debris, you were told not to look up.

"There were fireballs and bodies probably, but you just ran.”

Mr Finch, tried to make his way back to the British Consulate three miles away, but found himself outside the stock exchange on Wall Street when the first tower collapsed with its torrent of debris.

“I left my suitcase then, and legged it into the stock exchange just before someone pulled the shutter down.

“We were in lockdown for about three hours in the basement.

"There were people praying because they didn't know if we were going to get out, it was almost like the Titanic,” he said.

He and others watched TV coverage of the aftermath on the stock exchange’s trading floor before being let out.

When Mr Finch finally got back to the consulate he called his concerned family.

The 22-storey Marriott was utterly devastated in the Twin Towers collapse.

Only four storeys of the building were still standing, all of which were gutted.

Around 40 people died in the hotel, including two hotel employees and many firefighters who were using the hotel as a staging ground.

Mr Finch said other than two phone calls after he left the hotel that day, he did not speak to anyone for around six hours, which he reflected may have helped him cope.

Mr Finch, whose family still live in Billington and Langho, moved back to the UK in 2004 and now works as head of public affairs at communications agency Fishburn Hedges.

He said he rarely talks about 9/11, and did not in the immediate aftermath.

“The lasting impact has been a very close connection to the US.

“It happened three or four months into my posting to Washington. I could have just gone, ‘this is a nightmare, I’m going home’, but I didn’t.

“I stayed and I'm really glad I did. I continued working and living in Washington, made some lifelong friends, and I still go back about twice a year.

“I don't think I'd have done that if this hadn't happened.

“I was left with this positive story and I feel quite bound in now to Washington and friends there. It’s like my second home.” he said.

And in October Mr Finch will make his own journey to Ground Zero and re-trace his steps of that day.

“I've been back to New York, I had to because of work. But what I have never done, because it was too much in that first couple of years, is go back to Ground Zero.

“Back then it was overwhelming. If I’d gone back then that would have been too much.

"But I'm going to Washington in October and I think I'm going to go to New York first.

"It'll be after the 10th anniversary and I have it in my mind that I'll re-trace my steps from that day.”

Mr Finch, joined the civil service in Northern Ireland in 1993 and after moving to the Treasury was seconded to Washington in June 2001 as First Secretary (Economic Affairs).

Mr Finch, who now lives in Kennington, south London, now has an ‘anything could happen’ view.

“I'm just not surprised when big or unexpected things happen,” he said.

“I very much doubt I'll ever experience anything like that ever again and that's good, but the downside is I'm a bit immune to normal reactions to things.

“I guess in some ways maybe it makes me quite good in a crisis."