Coming to London to mark 10 years since 9/11, a relic from Ground Zero

Twisted, charred steel from the remains of the World Trade Center in New York will go on display in London for the first time tomorrow.

The 8ft-long beam will become part of the Imperial War Museum's permanent collection and is the first remnant of the Twin Towers to come to Britain, before the 10th anniversary on September 11 of the American terrorist atrocity.

The piece weighs more than a third of a ton and until now has been stored in Hangar 17 at JFK airport in New York, with other debris from the 16-acre Ground Zero site.

Spanish-American artist Francesc Torres, commissioned by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, took photographs inside the hangar and the beam forms the centrepiece of a photo exhibition at the war museum, called Memory Remains.

Torres said: "I was hit by the deep sense that the objects, from large shards of rusted and burnt steel to bikes left forever by their owners, were the symbolic substitutes of the victims."

More than 3,000 people, including 67 Britons, died on September 11 2001 when 19 al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four planes, flying two into the towers and a third into the Pentagon outside Washington DC. The fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

Diane Lees, director-general of the Imperial War Museum, said: "This display will enable our visitors to reflect on the 9/11 attacks and their human cost, as well as the wider impact of modern conflict on lives."