9/11 bones found at World Trade Center

Medical examiners were on Friday sifting through dirt and debris at the World Trade Center looking for more human remains after large pieces of bones were found that may belong to victims of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001.

The bones were found on Thursday at the southern end of so-called 'ground zero,' the site of the destroyed World Trade Center.

Families of the 2,749 people killed when the 110-storey twin towers were destroyed by two terrorist-hijacked commercial airplanes wanted federal authorities to take over the case.

They blamed rescue workers and searchers for failing their work of finding all remains following the 9/11 tragedy. The large pieces of bones were discovered by workers of the electrical company Con Edison. The workers alerted medical examiners to their discovery.

"Con Ed did the right thing calling the city in, they did the right thing," said Charles Wolf told New York television channel 1.

Wolf's wife died in one of the twin towers and her remains were never found.

"I don't know if all of these people who are being lured to New York and who are being lured to downtown Manhattan, would they like to know that they are going to be living among the human remains of the victims of 9/11," asked Sally Regenhard, who lost her son on 9/11.

Channel 1 said Thursday's discovery came months after dozens of bone fragments were found months ago during the demolition of Deutsche Bank building, which stood next ground zero.

In the post 9/11 period, workers cleaning up ground zero picked up tens of thousands of human remains. Medical examiners did DNA studies to match the victims with their families.

- DPA