IT was a fairly unremarkable Tuesday afternoon in Swindon when news of the tragedy broke at 1pm.

Staff in the Adver’s old office at the top of Victoria Road were working on Wednesday’s edition when footage of the attack suddenly appeared on every news channel.

Ben Fitzgerald, then 29, vividly remembers being in the newsroom with his colleagues Nick Ahad, Ian Fannon, Martin Vincent and Sarah Heathcote. He said: “People stood around, paralysed, watching it unfold on the boxy little TV near the news editor’s desk. When the second plane hit and it became clear it wasn’t an accident, everything flipped.

“You’re in two minds when something like that happens. Reacting to momentous breaking news is what you are in the job for, your professional instincts kick in and you’re enthused about it.

"But at the same time, you’re reflecting on all the anguish and pain, thinking of the people who got up for work as usual and were now trapped at the top of the towers. It’s important not to lose that side.

“It doesn’t seem like 20 years ago, it’s still very fresh in my mind and it did feel like a pivotal and significant moment that I would always remember and it’s consequences are still rippling out.

“We knew we had to have something in the paper about it, that’s what readers would be expecting. I remember Pauline Leighton calling the printworks and actually telling them to stop the press.”

True to its original name, the Evening Advertiser quickly put together a late special edition that night with a new front page headlined ‘TERROR IN THE SKY’ and a picture of the burning World Trade Centre.

Inside, page 4’s world news coverage captured a snapshot of the uncertainty in the moments after the disaster, with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claiming responsibility and no clear idea of the death toll. Information came from CNN, with a still image from Fox News dominating the page.

In a curious contrast to this historic moment, the opposite page focused on Marks and Spencer’s plans to open a discount store in the Designer Outlet, the Wurzels coming to Highworth, and a picture story of Dennis the Menace outside the Sargeo Kids toy shop for its first anniversary celebrations.

While getting the changes for the September 11 late edition ready, Adver reporters worked on a double-page feature for Wednesday’s paper which explored Swindon’s reaction to the attacks.

Ben added: “Trying to find the local angle was the challenge, getting the reaction, the perspective, the human element of it all.”

Adver editor at the time Simon O'Neill said: "9/11 was the biggest, most shocking story of my professional life but when the planes struck the Twin Towers, I was at Manchester University in the middle of a week-long course.

"The first I knew something terrible had happened was when we emerged for a coffee break to see a big group of people huddled around a TV. There were cries and sobs coming from them and I later discovered that several of them were Americans.

"I phoned the office immediately and wasn't surprised to learn that the team were already on the case getting a special edition ready, as the Adver had already gone to press.

"Journalists are human beings too and they were as shocked as anyone else by the events in New York. But they got straight on and did their jobs regardless and I recall that across the country, news teams on local and regional papers all did the same.

"As the events of that awful morning unfolded, my thoughts went to my wife and three children, then aged 11, 10 and 8. How do you explain something like that to kids? And how do they even begin to process such horrors?

"When I came home, one of the kids handed me a drawing he had done for me. It showed a bucolic family scene, with parents, kids and a dog but in the background were the Twin Towers, ablaze and billowing smoke. It was heartbreaking. All the 20th anniversary documentaries have been on TV in the past week, but so far I've not been able to watch any of them. I'm not sure I ever will."

This feature headlined ‘FIVE ARABS ARE SUSPECTS’ filled the first two pages and included quotes from Rev Simon Stevenette, Rev Stephen Oram and Mgr Richard Twomey.

Paul Wojciak from Old Town was in Boston Airport when the state of emergency was declared and New Yorker Jessica Herman reassured Swindon friends she was alright.

The ‘AFTERMATH’ front page had bullet-points - 25,000 feared dead, international condemnation, stepped-up UK security, travel plan chaos and a stock market slump - and declared ‘AMERICA UNDER SIEGE’.