A GRADUATE, who flew out to New York last week to start her first job, was one of the lucky few to escape injury after the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, in Manhattan, came crashing to the ground.

Stunned Katy Greenbank, 22, of Lynton Avenue, Leyland, said: "I've never been so scared" following the terrorist attack in the USA last week.

For as long as she can remember Katy had dreamed of living and working in the Big Apple and jumped at the chance of a year-long work and study scheme organised by the Mountbatten Internship Programme.

She arrived in the States on Monday, September 10 -- the day before the tragedy -- where she met up with a group of 60 people on the same programme.

The former Leyland St Mary's High School pupil, who used to work for ADI production company, off New Hall Lane, Preston, was having breakfast at Grand Central Station when the hijacked planes ploughed into the World Trade Centre towers.

Katy told how the head of her work placement programme came and told them what had happened: "He was white as a sheet as he explained to us that there were English Mountbatten interns working there."

As Katy and the Mountbatten team watched the news unfold live on television they realised the attack, just a few blocks away, was not an accident.

"After both buildings had collapsed, everything ground to a halt," Katy said. "Everyone was too shocked to think straight. All the payphones had been disconnected. It was complete isolation.

"One of the most vibrant and powerful cities in the world had no phones, no subway and no way in or out on the roads or tunnels. I wandered the streets trying to find a payphone that worked -- a car drove past completely covered in dust and rubble, I just broke down.

"When I finally got through my mum's voice was like a physical pain. I realised I was trapped in a city that had turned incredibly dangerous and scary, surrounded by people I had only known for one evening."

Despite escaping the devastating terrorist attack, the former Runshaw College student was forced to flee her hotel wearing only her nightwear, later the same day, following a bomb scare beneath the Empire State Building near the site of the collapsed twin towers.

She joined seven members of the Mountbatten group and ran seven blocks to safety before suffering an asthma attack in the middle of the street.

Katy said: "New York police were everywhere screaming at everyone to run faster and as I looked up, I realised the Empire State Building was directly over me. No matter how hard I ran, I felt it was going to blow up and fall on me.

"I can honesty say that I have never been as scared as I was at that moment -- I was literally running for my life and bracing myself for the inevitable explosion."

The following day there was a second bomb scare at the hotel before Katy and her group were moved to permanent apartments across in New Jersey.

Katy added: "The buildings are still smouldering -- it's an eerie and disturbing sight to think that hundreds of bodies are still trapped.

"The saddest sight for me is the hundreds of missing persons posters stuck on lampposts around the city. All give a name, photo and which floor of the World Trade Centre they were on.

"It's so heartbreaking, it's unlikely any of these people will be found alive."