Gold found under World Trade Centre

Recovery workers at the World Trade Centre have found a cache of gold that has already filled two lorries.

The precious metal may be part of the vault containing more than £137m in gold and silver which was buried under the twin towers when they collapsed.

The vault was owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia, which held the gold and silver as security for trading international currencies in New York.

Work is continuing to get the remaining gold, after the first two loads of the metal left under tight security last night.

It has taken workers two days to clear a tunnel to bring the gold out, getting rid of tonnes of debris, a 10-wheeled lorry and several crushed cars.

Hundreds of heavily-armed Secret Service agents, FBI and police guarded the gold as workers built a ramp to allow an armoured truck to drive in late last night.

The Bank of Nova Scotia said it did not know if its gold had been found last night and other firms are believed to have had gold and other valuables buried in the debris.

The find came as New York City bosses ordered police and fire-fighters to scale back their presence at the site. Just 24 police and 24 fire-fighters will be left sorting through the rubble in the search for the bodies of the more than 4,000 still missing at the site.

However, the plan has met with opposition from uniformed services unions, who said the fact bodies of police and fire-fighters were still being found meant they should be allowed to stay at the site.