WHEN news of the first impact came through on the car radio I immediately went home and switched on CNN, as a couple of my friends work in the Twin Towers for various financial institutions. writes Ian Cameron.

I was shocked to see the second aircraft crash into the center and the ball of flame that engulfed the buildings.

Within a few minutes I telephoned my friends in Evesham, New Jersey, Joe and Jackie McBride, as their daughter Lesley's husband, Kees Goudschmidt works at Barings Bank and they and their new baby live very close to the World Trade Center.

It was, I knew, rather futile to call, as Joe and Jackie had already told us that they were going to visit Lesley on Tuesday, so all I could do was leave a message.

The rest of the day was spent in a state of disbelief as the dramas unfolded.

Later in the evening, my wife Judy managed to call the McBrides' youngest son, Kevin, who lives in Quincey, Boston, and he assured us that his parents were not able to get into New York because of the traffic chaos so, of course, were safe and that Lesley, Kees and the baby had been evacuated from Manhattan and were also safe.

Frighteningly, however, the McBrides' eldest son Michael, a lawyer, had been on his way to a meeting somewhere downtown, and now his cellphone was not contactable.

We knew that he often worked in the Wall Street area, so we were concerned.

Later that night, Jackie managed to ring us , but was obviously very upset. we then spent a sleepless night, hoping the phone would ring with some good news but we heard nothing. Finally, and, strangely enough, just after I came out of the memorial service at Stratford, my wife rang me with the news that Michael had been located and was OK, although I don't yet know what the circumstances of his situation are.

We're thankful that he's safe, but the horror of the situation for our other friends in the USA is only just beginning to sink in.