Families from other lands wait

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, September 13, 2001

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — New York’s tragedy became the world’s when terrorists slammed hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center, where thousands of foreigners work or visit every day.

By Thursday, from China to Mexico, tens of thousands of anxious relatives around the globe had swamped offices and telephone hot lines set up by their governments to gather information on their citizens.

The heaviest foreign toll appeared to be borne by Britons.

"I understand that the number of confirmed British deaths is now approaching 100," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Thursday. "Although these … cannot be anything but imprecise estimates, the total number of British deaths is unlikely to be less than the middle hundreds and maybe higher."

Stories began to emerge of dramatic escapes and equally heart-rending losses. For thousands overseas, so much hung on a single phone call, bringing either good or bad news.

Glenia Bardales, 15, of Honduras, described a call from her father, Armando Bardales, a pastry chef who was working in the Marriott at the World Trade Center when the first plane struck Tuesday.

The 40-year-old Bardales called nine hours after the attack to say he escaped by breaking the glass in a second story window and jumping out.

"He said it felt like an earthquake," the teen-ager said, adding he described running through smoke and falling glass, when a "body fell on the pavement in front of him, like a smashed tomato."

Other families got bad news. Wilder Gomez, of Cali, Colombia, worked as a waiter at the Trade Center’s elegant Windows on the World restaurant.

His family reached him on his cell phone from Cali after watching the second plane barrel into the building on live television.

"He said, ‘I’m trapped on the 103rd floor, and there’s a lot of smoke. But tell my mom that I’m all right.’ Then the call disconnected," Gomez’s sister-in-law, Elisabeth Quiceno, said.

The roster of missing and dead reflected New York’s international character, but as with the overall count, the numbers remained unclear.

At least 50 Bangladeshis have been confirmed dead in the attacks. Government spokesman Safi Sami said many worked at restaurants in the towers.

About 100 Japanese nationals, including dozens of tourists, were unaccounted for. There were 31 Japanese companies with branch offices in the Trade Center towers, and at least 22 workers were among the missing.

Canadian officials said two Canadian citizens died on the hijacked planes and that 50 to 100 others were missing.

Nine Australians were confirmed dead, and another 85 were missing. "We have little doubt that we will need to brace ourselves for more," Defense Minister Peter Reith said.

Twenty-seven South Koreans, most of whom worked in the towers, were listed as missing. Confirmed dead was Kim Ji-soo, 37, on the hijacked United Airlines plane from Boston. She was flying with her American husband and 2-year-old daughter.

At Mexico’s presidential residence, operators working toll-free lines fielded 2,500 calls since Tuesday; 11 Mexicans are listed as missing.

U.S.-based Chinese diplomats opened hot lines for information. A Chinese couple was killed on the plane that struck the Pentagon, and two others died, but it was unclear in which of the attacks they were killed.

Six Colombians were confirmed dead — four in the towers, and two passengers on one of the planes that hit them — while distraught relatives have been unable to contact another 150 Colombians who lived in New York.

Two Swiss passengers died aboard the crashed planes. Three Lebanese were reported missing, including two who worked at the trade center, where a 25-year-old Swedish man was also unaccounted for.

At least eight Italians were unaccounted for, and an unspecified number of Dutch nationals were among the casualties.

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