On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda carried out four coordinated suicide attacks on the United States of America by hijacking four commercial passenger jet airliners. Two of the planes were intentionally crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and thousands of people working in the buildings, and within two hours both towers collapsed, destroying or damaging several nearby buildings. A third airliner crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and crew attempted to take control of the plane. No one survived aboard any of the hijacked airliners, including all 19 terrorists. A total of 2,977 men, women, and children were killed in the attacks, including 246 on the four planes, 2,606 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. Among the dead were 411 emergency personnel who responded at the World Trade Center while attempting rescues and fighting the fires, including 342 firefighters and 2 paramedics from the New York City Fire Department, 23 officers from the New York City Police Department, 37 officers from the Port Authority Police, and 8 additional EMTs and paramedics from private EMS units.