<P> Coordinates: 40 ° 42 ′ 41.12" N 74 ° 00 ′ 44.00" W ﻿ / ﻿ 40.7114222 ° N 74.0122222 ° W ﻿ / 40.7114222; - 74.0122222 </P> <P> The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, as a result of being struck by two jet airliners hijacked by 10 terrorists affiliated with al - Qaeda, during the September 11 attacks . Two of the four hijacked airliners crashed into the Twin Towers, one into the North Tower (1 World Trade Center) and the other into the South Tower (2 World Trade Center). The collapse of the Twin Towers destroyed the rest of the complex, and debris from the collapsing towers severely damaged or destroyed more than a dozen other adjacent and nearby structures . The South Tower collapsed at 9: 59 am, less than an hour after being hit by the second hijacked airliner, and at 10: 28 am the North Tower collapsed . Later that day, 7 World Trade Center collapsed at 5: 21 pm from fires that had started when the North Tower collapsed . As a result of the attacks to the towers, a total of 2,763 people died . Of the people who died in the towers, 2,192 were civilians, 343 were firefighters, and 71 law enforcement officers . Aboard the two airplanes, 147 civilians and 10 hijackers also died . </P> <P> Immediately following the attacks, a building performance study (BPS) team of engineering specialists was formed by the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (SEI / ASCE) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The BPS team issued its report in May 2002, finding that the aircraft impacts caused "extensive structural damage, including localized collapse" and that the resulting fires "further weakened the steel - framed structures, eventually leading to total collapse". They also presented recommendations for more detailed engineering studies of the disaster . </P>

What time did the world trade center towers fall