THE tragic events in New York were made even more significant for Hyndburn MP GREG POPE as his daughter was just a mile away from the Trade Centre collapse on September 11. Fortunately she was okay. Now the MP has visited Ground Zero to see the devastation at first hand. Here is his account.

TWO years I took a short holiday in New York. I did all the things you'd expect a tourist to do -- visited the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, the Empire State and Times Square.

But even in a city of skyscrapers one place stood out and dwarfed the others, the World Trade Centre. Its twin towers were so high that, because of the curvature of the earth, they were further apart at the top than they were at their base.

And the view from the top was breathtaking. So dominant were they that they inadvertently formed the backdrop to virtually every holiday snap I took. I went back there last week to what is now called Ground Zero. I went to the impromptu adjacent shrine which has been established by New Yorkers, and helped lay a wreath on behalf of the British Parliament.

There are pictures of the 343 firefighters who lost their lives, and of the many police officers who died as well. There are pictures of many of the thousands of murdered office workers. I started reading messages left by the bereaved and soon had to look away. It was unbearably moving. No amount of pictures or TV footage could prepare me for what I saw. I was with the other members of the Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee. No one spoke a word for a long time.

It is like a scene from Hell. An area about the size of ten football pitches is covered with twisted steel and debris, and two months on it is still burning.

I was standing on a wooden viewing platform erected to enable bereaved relatives to visit the site. The rail on which I leant and was covered in graffiti. Looking closer I saw it had been written by children of the missing. The first one said "Come back soon Daddy, I miss you". I didn't read on.

I'd remembered there was a motorway running down the left side of the World Trade Centre and I asked an NYPD detective where it was. "You mean the West Street Highway. You're stood on it." There was nothing left but tracks through the debris cut out by the recovery vehicles.

I will never forget what I saw and felt last week. Nor will I forget the spontaneous warmth of New Yorkers towards me because I was British. I felt incredibly proud of that. It stiffened my resolve to help see through the war against terrorism, no matter how difficult it is.