Today marks the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that changed life forever.

On that morning in 2001, four aeroplanes, hijacked by members of militant Islamist group al-Qaeda, flew into the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon building in Arlington. The fourth plane crashed in an open field in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew attempted to regain control from the hijackers.

There will be a number of ceremonies today paying tribute to victims and survivors.

Many of you will remember where you were on September 11, 2001, that Tuesday afternoon when we all stopped what we were doing and stared open-mouthed at our TV screens.

I remember I had just finished at university and was about to start a temping job to raise funds for my journalism course. I was listening to the radio whilst doing the washing up at home in Hampshire and the local station I was listening to, 210 FM, normally a music only station, interrupted its broadcast with news of planes flown into the Twin Towers.

I turned on the television and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

We asked the Dorset Echo Facebook group, We Grew Up in Weymouth and Portland, which you can join here, where they were on that unforgettable day.

Susan Bailey: "I was at home watching TV, I seriously thought they were showing a film clip until I realised it was real, so very sad, I went to New York the following year, people will never forget this awful day."

Chris Stevens: " I was in a year 10 biology class with Mr Hawkins at Budmouth. He put the TV on to show some science video, and there were scenes of explosions. I didn’t think much of it. By the time I walked home after school, the towers had come down."

Elaine Louise remembers: "I was at work, I didn’t realise how serious it was until I got home, switched on the news and saw the awful footage of people falling."

Lucy Hardwicke told us: "I was in Bournemouth and I saw it on TV, through a cafe's window. At first I thought it was a film and quickly realised it wasn't. I remember looking down at my 9 month baby in her pram and thinking, what sort of world have I brought her in to."

Dorset Echo:

Chris Osborn said: "I was at work at Midas Digital Colour in Poole. We were all stunned as the news came in. A friend of mine was flying back from America at that very time."

"I was in London and I had the news on," Clair Evans recalled. She added: "I don't think I will ever forget that day.. it was horrific."

Lynda Davis said: "I was in a cheap hotel in Italy, there was an old man watching it on the black and white tv. Couldn’t believe it. Totally surreal. So mind blowing bonkers.

"I don’t think anyone will forget where they were. Same as when Diana died."

Sue Hogben said: "I was at home but not having TV or radio on I hadn’t realised what was happening until my husband phoned from work and told me. My most vivid memory of that day is my youngest daughter coming home from school and her first words were ‘is this WWIII?’"

Donna J Young was at home at the time. She said: "I turned over the TV channel and thought it must be a film. Horrendous."

Dorset Echo:

Melissa Ann Scannell-Burns was in London at the time and had just come home from school, year 7.

She said: "My mum was building two cd towers (we still have them and the similarities between them and the twin towers are uncanny) we were watching the whole thing on the tv after my dad who was at work called up us to tell us what was happening.

"A bit later a boy who lived down the balcony (who is now my husband) asked if I wanted to come out and play, but I replied (honestly word for word) "I can't come out they are evacuating the city of London".

"A few years down the line I have developed a rather keen interest in the events of that day and the stories of the survivors and those who perished. I have watched probably way too many documentaries and have several books.

"In 2017 I went to New York and to the memorial and museum. It's a very quiet experience, almost a vacuum. I had the pleasure of meeting a survivor as well, Tom Canavan, pictured several times with his face covered with blood that's not his own, his body covered with dust. He is a very humble man."

Dorset Echo:

Steve Collins said: "I remember being on annual leave at home and seeing the event unfolding in utter disbelief."

Ann Storey remembers: "I just came in from a shopping trip and switched the tv on and I was so shocked with what I was watching. I rang my Dad and told him to switch his TV on."

Carol Hobson said: "I was sat by the pool in Gran Canaria,so awful."

Karen O'Connor was working at her local Co-Op on Portland at the time. She said: "My husband at the time came in and said it was like something out of a horror movie, I remember it well as it was his birthday."

Rachel Cooper said: "I was sitting in the bowling alley, supping hot chocolate with friends and experiencing disbelief at the TV images."

Jennifer Blair said: "I had just come out from jury service and my husband phoned me on the way home." Amazing photography."

Meanwhile, Stephen Hine remembers being in Weymouth's Wetherspoons on the Town Bridge and Derek Galpin recalls that at the time he was working in Blandford for Wessex Water.

Use the space below to tell us where you were 20 years ago on 9/11

Community answers

Where were you on 9/11

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From Philip hockey

Where were you and what were you doing/thinking?On the day of 9/11 I was at Windsor army barracks loading up my truck with military vehicles and the whole site went into immediate lockdown we couldn’t get out for 24hrs,and all you could see in the sky was endless planes trying to land at Heathrow airport.