Cutting edge DNA identifies two more victims of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks - the first in two years

11 September 2023, 11:12

New York City officials have identified the remains of two more victims who died during the 9/11 attacks, 22 years after the tragedy.

A man and a woman were both identified but their names are being withheld at the request of their families.

This is the first positive identification in two years and part of the long-running bit to return victims to their families.

The announcement came on the 22nd anniversary of the terror attacks.

New York City´s medical examiner has now been able to link remains to 1,649 World Trade Center victims, using cutting-edge DNA sequencing techniques to test body fragments recovered in the rubble.

In total 2,753 people were killed in lower Manhattan after the hijacked-plane attack on the World Trade Center.

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Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York City, said he hopes the new identifications can bring "some measure of comfort" to the victims families.

He said: "As we prepare to mark the anniversary of September 11, our thoughts turn to those we lost on that terrible morning and their families who continue to live every day with the pain of missing loved ones.

"We hope these new identifications can bring some measure of comfort to the families of these victims, and the ongoing efforts by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner attest to the city’s unwavering commitment to reunite all the World Trade Center victims with their loved ones.

The techniques used by the city's DNA laboratory include recently adopted next-generation sequencing technology. It is the same test that has been used to identify the remains of more than 100 people who died during the wildfires in Maui last month.

However, despite the advancements in DNA technology, 40 per cent of those who died in the attack, some 1,104 victims, remain unidentified - they are currently being stored at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center site.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Graham, said "More than 20 years after the disaster, these two new identifications continue to fulfill a solemn pledge that OCME made to return the remains of World Trade Center victims to their loved ones.

"Faced with the largest and most complex forensic investigation in the history of our country, we stand undaunted in our mission to use the latest advances in science to serve this promise."