Scottish 9/11 survivor refuses to 'live in fear' as she prepares to return to New York

A Scottish mother who survived the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center is preparing to return to the city for the first time in 15 years.

Lorraine Gilmartin Blevins was on the 60th floor of the World Trade Center's south tower talking to a co-worker about getting some breakfast when she was confronted with a life or death decision after the first hijacked passenger jet slammed into the north tower.

As an announcement advised employees to stay where they were, Glasgow-born Blevins and others ignored it and fled the building.

They managed to reach the 44th floor when they felt another powerful jolt: a plane being deliberately crashed into the south tower.

Now, the financial expert, who works for Morgan Stanley, has agreed to return to Manhattan. The company's new offices are in Times Square.

Although she is convinced that another terrorist attack will happen in New York, Blevins refuses to give into fear and will return to Manhattan on Monday (12 September).

"I don't know how I feel about going back there," she told the Scottish Daily Record. "For a long time, it's been nice to drive in my car every day and feel safe working in New Jersey.

"But being in a crowded place, I'll be more vigilant," she said. "Before 9/11, I would have never thought about things like that but everything has changed.

"I do believe another terrorist attack will happen in my lifetime around the same area.

"The Twin Towers weren't just targeted on 9/11, that site was bombed a few years prior and the area will always be a target," Blevins added. "I'm definitely more sure than other people that more terrorist attacks will happen in New York.

"I can recall other times with my kids and husband when I've pointed out that something could happen.

"Just because you have lived through something like that, you believe it can happen again anytime.

"I'm not a nervous person and I do not avoid places but I'll be the most vigilant person in Times Square. But I'm not intimidated," she said defiantly.

The 9/11 terror attacks killed 2,753 people in New York, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 on Flight 93 and sparked an international manhunt for former al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden. The orchestrator of the atrocities was killed by US special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2011.