A YORK priest told today of his horrifying experiences in Manhattan the day the World Trade Centre was destroyed.

Father David Grant said he was staying on holiday in a hotel less than a mile from the Centre when the terrorists struck.

He said he had been planning to go up to a bureau at the Centre when it opened at 11am to buy half-price tickets for a Broadway show. "If it had opened at 9am, I would have been there when it all happened," he said.

Instead, the first he knew of the atrocity was when he heard the second plane roar past his hotel at full throttle.

He went out into the street and within 50 yards came in sight of the Centre which was on fire.

"There was a huge crowd of people, screaming and crying. People were begging other people to lend them their mobile phones to try and get in touch with people they knew in the World Trade Centre."

He said that when the first tower collapsed, it was like a volcano erupting. "There was a huge explosion and a huge cloud of dust and debris and flames.

"The crowd of people had already been fairly hysterical. When that happened, all hell broke loose.

"The sickly sweet smell was appalling and it got worse as the days went by."

Father Grant, 43, who is parish priest of the Roman Catholic Church of St Paulinus in Monkton Road, said he went to the university and spent the next couple of days counselling and comforting staff and students, many of whom had lost friends and were deeply upset.

"The whole atmosphere of New York changed. It's normally very brusque and brash and upbeat. Before, people would say "Have a nice day." Afterwards, they were saying: "Have a safe day." At that time, people were convinced more was going to happen."

He said he was held up in New York for several days before managing to catch a flight home.

He said he had been to the Roman Catholic Cathedral on the evening after the attack, and as he was going in, the talk was of retribution and "nuking" Kabul.

But the Roman Catholic Cardinal of New York, Cardinal Egan, had told the congregation that the response to the attack must be measured and should not involve the widespread killing of innocent people, and he agreed with this view.

Updated: 08:25 Wednesday, September 26, 2001