Within the Ruins, Missing Foreigners

By Mae M. Cheng | STAFF WRITER

September 17, 2001

Several hundred British nationals may have died as a result of the airborne terrorist attack at the Twin Towers, government officials said Friday.

While the British may have been among the countries greatest impacted by the mounting death toll, government officials from other nations also are searching for fellow citizens who worked in the 110-story towers. Thousands of foreign nationals may be buried in the rubble of the towers, where many international corporations had operations.

"We're still in the process of gathering more information," said Zhang Yuanyuan, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington.

In the eyes of the world, the World Trade Center represented the hub of international finance, where companies from Latin America, Asia and Europe have set up offices to make their presence felt.

"It's so important to have a presence in New York and particularly the World Trade Center," said Andrew Hsia, the head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York.

Among the foreign banks and securities, brokerage and insurance firms that were tenants at the World Trade Center are Fuji Bank of Japan, Deutsche Bank of Germany and the Westfield retail development company of Australia. Westfield, which had been working out an agreement to open more retail businesses at the Trade Center complex, lost one of its senior executives in the collapse of the Twin Towers, Australian consulate officials said.

Many foreign consulates in New York and embassies in Washington have gone into crisis mode, staffing their offices around the clock to field the thousands of phone calls from concerned relatives. Some offices have suspended normal operations until today. Others have their staff frantically reaching out to hospitals and city agencies searching for information about their nationals.

The following is an accounting of the missing from some governments:

Among the missing are 90 Australians, 60 Canadians, 24 Japanese nationals, 19 Koreans, nine Taiwanese, five French nationals and five Bangladeshis.