Somber faces stared at the news in awe. Watching as a fireball engulfed both World Trade Center towers early Tuesday morning, most eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

“The first thing I did was just pray,” freshman mathematics major Brian Gill said.

Citing an extremely heavy loss of life, U.S. officials have confirmed terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., occurred shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday. Both towers, which housed nearly 50,000 workers apiece, were destroyed and collapsed after being hit by two aircrafts that had been hijacked earlier in the morning.

In Washington, D.C., a huge portion of the Pentagon was destroyed by another plane, American Flight 77, which was en route to San Francisco. Less than an hour later, United Flight

93 crashed near Shanksville, Penn.

Early FBI reports say that all four planes, carrying a total of 266 people, were hijacked.

Students all over NIU skipped classes to gather in groups around television sets in residence halls and at the Holmes Student Center, watching events unfold all over the country. Silence overwhelmed most rooms, interrupted by occasional gasps and cries.

“I am worried for our families that live in big cities, like Chicago,” said Amy Spangler, a senior deaf education major. “I think that a lot of people are panicked. They’re not really concentrating on classes.”

Although classes at NIU and several campus events went as scheduled, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all commercial aircrafts to be grounded early on in the day. The New York Stock Exchange, as well as markets and businesses in Chicago, were closed.

“I was shocked that such a thing would happen in the United States,” freshman business major Nicole Grossman said.

Yu-li Chang, a former broadcast journalist and current assistant communication professor, expressed dismay upon learning of the tragedy.

“I was very shocked once I heard it was two aircrafts,” she said. “I thought, ‘this was not a simple accident.'”

Chang spent five years as a network correspondent in Taiwan and also has contributed to “CNN World Report.” She never experienced such a tragedy during her years as a broadcast journalist.

“We need to find out why this happened, how it can happen on such a large scale, without security agencies knowing something,” Chang said. “The security part is really a concern. My heart goes out to the victims and families. I had to try to calm myself down so I can deal with class.”

At the Newman Center Tuesday morning, Laura Bird and Father Steve Knox tried to come to grips with the day’s events before they headed out to residence halls and the student center to help console the campus.

“I was listening to the radio driving to work when I heard what happened,” said Bird, an English instructor and director of religious education at Newman. “Some have even compared it to Pearl Harbor. It’s a historical day and will be changing lives.

“Students are welcome to come anytime and pray. America will go on and respond and find out who they are. I don’t think the target is so much the U.S. but symbols of capitalism in military.”

With comparisons to the Oklahoma City Bombing and movies like “Armageddon” and “Independence Day,” most people just yearn for an explanation as to why the United States has become a target.

“The president should take quick action,” geography major Joseph Tauer said.

Staff Reporters Melanie Schroeder, Libby John and Beth Oltmanns, assistant campus editor Jeff Goluszka and the Associated Press contributed to this report.