European shares plummeted following
the World Trade Centre plane crashes.
By mid-afternoon, the FTSE 100 Index
was off 219.6 points at 4,814.6, while all
the European markets plunged.

The New York Stock Exchange was
evacuated and trading was cancelled,
possibly for the entire day.

The World Trade Centre and nearby
World Financial Centre were also
evacuated. Both are home to many
brokerages and investment firms.

Jeremy Batstone at NatWest
Stockbrokers said: "The London market
was up around 60 to 70 points before -
now look at it."

Tom Hougaard, trader at Financial
Spreads, the financial bookmaker, said:
"Its an absolute disaster. I'm telling you
it is really bad. It's a really precipitous
drop. When the US opens it will dive."

Mike Lenhoff at broker Gerrard said: "Its
a disaster. Its throws the whole market
background into chaos. The Pentagon
has been bombed and nobody really
knows the American policy response,
which I think is going to be pretty severe,
once they feel confident about who is
responsible.

"I don't think one can talk sensibly about
market behaviour. Just as we're talking,
the UK market fell by 20-30 points -
these are pretty fast market conditions.

"Banks, insurers will fall the most -
anything that's exposed. Oil stocks will
do well and oil prices are rising. The oil
price is now almost 30 dollars a barrel
compared with 27.50 dollars earlier this
morning."