Rescue workers have recovered 15 more bodies from the ruins of the World Trade Center, taking the total of confirmed dead to 233, but the number of people reported missing is unchanged at 5,422, New York Mayor Mr Rudolph Giuliani said today.
Meanwhile scant hope remained of finding anyone alive in the ruins of the World Trade Center a week after a terror attack collapsed the twin towers, authorities said today moving closer to delivering the dreaded news that those missing people are now dead.
Rescue workers digging at the site of the buildings, which were reduced to rubble by coordinated attacks from two hijacked planes, found nothing but bodies and body parts.
"The chances of recovering any live human beings are very, very small," said Mr Giuliani. "We don't have any substantial amount of hope that we can offer to anyone that we are going to be able to find anyone alive."
The list of the missing stood at more than five thousand, he said.
The dead hailed from 62 nations, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.
"This is why no one can remain indifferent," he said, urging world leaders to do as he did and see the devastation firsthand.
"To see it closer gives you a completely different dimension," he said. "They all know that we need to come together to defeat terrorism, and we have to cooperate across the board to be able to do it." Mr Annan added.
"I have a lot of moments where I simply can't accept it," said Mr Giuliani, voicing the thoughts of countless others.
"I just keep thinking, 'How could they have done this?' When I woke up this morning a week later, there's a certain part of you that says this actually didn't really happen."
New York fire commissioner Mr Thomas Von Essen dampened hopes that someone could have survived in an air pocket.
"We are finding in some areas where there might be a void, the level of heat is so much that no one would have been able to survive," he said.
More than 300 of the missing were firefighters and emergency services workers. They had rushed into the buildings to rescue people after the two planes struck and were buried in the collapses.