Three of the Daily Mail’s most experienced reporters have relived their coverage of 9/11 and its aftermath on the latest Deep Dive podcast, marking the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks.

Each journalist provides memories and analysis of the tragedy from a unique vantage point. Former Chief Reporter David Williams was one of the leading figures in the London newsroom on September 11, 2001.

He would go on to spend four months in Afghanistan covering the opening salvo of the US-led invasion, as coalition forces began the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda terrorist who masterminded the attacks. 

Stephen Wright, former Chief Crime Correspondent, was sent to New York to cover the immediate aftermath. He boarded the first tentative flight from Heathrow to the city. As a crime reporter, his career would be profoundly shaped by the era of terrorism the attacks ushered in.

Former US Correspondent Sarah Chalmers was the only Daily Mail reporter on the ground when planes hit the Twin Towers. She filed the paper’s first dispatches from New York, amid all the confusion that erupted after the deadliest terror attack in history.

‘I remember standing, watching the telly in our tiny office,’ Chalmers said on Deep Dive.

Former US Correspondent Sarah Chalmers was the only Daily Mail reporter on the ground when planes hit the Twin Towers

‘I was looking at this reporter and behind his head, you could see a plane flying in at an angle towards the south Tower. I remember thinking, it’s going to hit it.

‘From that point on, it was chaos. It was like no other news day I’ve ever experienced. You knew immediately it was no accident.

‘The city was just full of disorientated people, filthy, traumatised, covered in ash. They were just walking in any direction away from the Towers.

‘People walked for hours to get home. The bridges, the tunnels, the routes out to New Jersey and Connecticut, all were shut down.

‘That night I remember barely sleeping because I could see the site from one of my back windows. The whole thing was lit up and the noise was deafening. It felt like the start of a third world war.

‘I thought we’re all going to die. I am 3,000 miles from everybody I love and we’re all going to die here.’

The morning after the Towers fell, Chalmers got as close to Ground Zero as she could to cover what was still being called the rescue effort.

What she found was a ‘horrific sight’, made worse by the growing realisation that the crews’ search for survivors was in vain. Nearly 2,750 people died at the World Trade Center.

Chalmers filed the paper’s first dispatches from New York, amid all the confusion that erupted after the deadliest terror attack in history

The morning after the Towers fell, Chalmers got as close to Ground Zero as she could to cover what was still being called the rescue effort

‘It was like a war zone, it was just dust and rubble everywhere,’ Chalmers said.

‘Tiny fragments of things people had on their desks: ripped bits of Post-it notes, a lip gloss, little cuddly toys. The most extraordinary scattering of personal detritus, which really hammered home how it could have been anybody. How ordinary those lives were.

‘There were lots of rescuers down there. Members of the fire service, a lot of doctors, all set up. You had this extraordinary scene where people came through what was like a fog.

‘These medics would appear in sort of hazmat suits, covered from head to toe in dust, with the most haunted look in their eyes.

‘One after another, they came through and would shake their heads and just say: “There’s nobody, there’s nobody.”‘

Hear more from Sarah, plus the perspectives of David and Stephen, by searching for Deep Dive wherever you get your podcasts.

There, you can also find a minute-by-minute account of the 9/11 attacks, narrated by broadcaster Michael Buerk, retracing the day as it unfolded.