A FORMER Hereford police officer was 'minutes from death' when he escaped from the World Trade Center in New York moments before the towers collapsed.

Neil Richardson, aged 42, was working on the 100th floor of the centre's North Tower when the hijacked United Airlines jet slammed into the building.

Amid the chaos that ensued, Neil ran for his life unaware that a second plane was heading for the South Tower.

He managed to get clear just in time.

Minutes later both towers had collapsed, trapping thousands of people and permanently changing the New York skyline.

News of Neil's dramatic escape reached Hereford yesterday afternoon (Wednesday), when he spoke to friend Pc Sally Fisher, a former colleague at the police station in Bath Street.

Speaking on behalf of many relieved friends and colleagues, Sally said: "I'm so delighted that he's okay." She had been trying desperately for 24 hours to contact him.

"When he answered that phone I was gob-smacked - I honestly thought he was dead.

"He told me that he heard a loud bang and, while people were looking bewildered, he just got out of there. "He made it out into the open just as the second plane crashed into the building. "He said that what he saw then was absolutely horrific, and he has seen some things in his time as a policeman.

"He said there were bodies flying everywhere as he ran for his life."

Neil Richardson left Hereford when he went to work for the police force in Bermuda, seeking a less-stressful life.

Now living in Manhattan, with his wife Ingrid and two-year-old twin daughters, he works in security for an insurance company. He has regularly kept in touch with many old associates in the county.

Last year he returned to the city for the funeral of a former colleague and just a couple of months ago went out for dinner with a party of friends at the Bunch of Carrots in Hampton Bishop.

Emergency teams are still sifting through the rubble in a tragic and risky operation to find the thousands of people who are believed to be trapped under the rubble of New York's World Trade Center.

By yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon eight survivors had been pulled clear since Tuesday night, and about 40 bodies recovered.