A FORMER Halton journalist has described how he was left in fear when his wife went missing for hours after arriving for work in Manhattan just minutes before a terrorist aircraft smashed into the World Trade Center.

Dave Candler, who worked for the Weekly News for 11 years, was left stunned when he watched television pictures of the attack from his New York home ­- just a few miles from the devastation.

But his horror turned to anxiety when he realised his wife Catherine's office was just a few blocks north of the World Trade Center.

With telephone lines crippled and switchboards across the city jammed, Dave, who works for the New York Daily News, was unable to find out whether Catherine was safe.

He said: 'Catherine works as an events organiser with a Midtown company and had left for work around the time of the first attack on the Center.

'She went AWOL from me for three hours after the disaster started to unfold. I was extremely stressed and couldn't get through to her by phone because all phones were down. I cannot describe how worried I was.

'My relief was immediate when she arrived home. She'd simply struggled to make her way home in all the confusion that was going on throughout the city -­ the subways had been stopped, buses were majorly disrupted and it was almost impossible to get a cab.

'Catherine finally hitchhiked back uptown home on a truck that had escaped the disaster area.'

Now 40-year-old Dave, who joined the Weekly News in 1977 soon after leaving school, and resigned as sports editor in 1988, is seriously thinking about leaving the Big Apple.

He said: 'It's all extremely disturbing and I have to say that Catherine and me are going to have to consider whether we will remain in New York.

Who's to say the terrorists won't strike again? The city is, for want of a better phrase, an extremely prestigious target.'

Dave also used to edit the Weekly News's Poptones page during the '80s and was well known on the Halton music scene. His most recent involvement was as a singer with Widnes band Out 77. He worked for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong for two years and moved to America last year.

After his wife arrived safely home, Dave walked three miles to work at the New York Daily News and described the horror and devastation around him.

He said: 'I cannot really explain well my feelings about the horror of it all and how close I am to it. I think everyone here is traumatised. Of course, I consider muself lucky not to have been in that part of town at the time because it is an area I pass through fairly often.

'The identities of those who have died have yet to be released, so I'm still waiting to hear whether I know any of the victims. Everyone in my circle of friends seems to be accounted for. Still, I suppose given the enormity of the death and injury tolls, there are going to be very few people living in New York who will not be touched directly by this tragedy.

'I am totally numb and somewhat nervous about how all this is going to hit everyone once it all sinks in during the next few days and weeks.

The terrifying and haunting image of destruction and people jumping to their deaths from the World Trade Center will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

'It took me an hour to walk to work and I was walking against a tide of people on every avenue who were fleeing the disaster area. But even though the sidewalks were packed with people, there was very little noise apart from the sound of wailing sirens all around the city.

'Our front page headline was IT'S WAR and that is, of course, very ominous and the mood in the newsroom was very subdued.

'I've seen reporters and photographers return to the office from the disaster scene close to tears, coughing and spluttering, their clothes torn and covered in dust. We are working double shifts and I am not sure when I will get home.'