World Trade Centre was target of terrorists 8 years before 9/11

New Delhi: Terrorists had struck New York's famed World Trade Centre twice - first in 1993, when a truck bomb was detonated, and during 9/11 attacks when commercial passenger planes were used to destroy the structure.

In 1993, a huge truck bomb was detonated in the basement of the Center's North Tower, killing six people and injuring over a 1000. Eight years later, terrorists struck again, killing 2,997 people and injuring thousands of others.

In the first attack, a home-made bomb kept inside a parked rental van in a garage underneath the Center’s twin towers was detonated.

The explosion carved out a crater several stories deep and impelled smoke into the upper reaches of the skyscrapers, according to the history.com.

It was one the worst terror attack in the US at that time.

However, the attack was soon overshadowed by 9/11, when Al Qaeda operatives crashed hijacked airplanes into the towers and brought them down.

The construction of the iconic 110-story twin towers of the World Trade Center was completed in 1973.

Hundreds of tourists reportedly come to visit the twin towers daily.