A visitor walks through the Empty Sky memorial to New Jerseys victims of the September 11 2001 attacks in Jersey City.
Families of the victims of the worst terror attack on the United States in history have gathered to mark the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with a moment of silence and the reading of names.
The attacks in New York and Washington killed almost 3,000 people, led to a long war in Afghanistan and created an expansion of government surveillance powers that continues to be debated today.
At a ceremony near Wall Street in New York, people paused at 1246 GMT to mark the time when the first of two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Centre. The twin towers later collapsed.
