Shooting scare as US marks 9/11

A Coast Guard training exercise on Washington's Potomac River sparked mistaken reports of a shooting as the US marked the 9/11 attacks anniversary. CNN had reported that 10 rounds were fired by the Coast Guard as a vessel tried to go through a security zone. But officials later said the incident had been a training exercise and no shots were fired. It came as President Barack Obama led ceremonies to mark the eighth anniversary of the 2001 attacks. CNN played an audiotape of the Coast Guard saying: "If you don't slow down, your vessel will be fired upon."The Department of Homeland Security later confirmed that the reported incident was a training exercise, and that no shots were fired. However, security officials said they had not been informed in advance about the exercise. "It would be normal for them to have let us know," Washington police spokeswoman Tracy Hughes told AFP news agency. "I don't know the circumstances as to why we were not informed, but we were not in this instance." The Coast Guard said in a statement that it would conduct a thorough review to establish how the incident could have been perceived as real. Departures from Reagan National Airport were halted after the incident as a precaution. Tributes Remembrance services were held across the US on the eighth anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks.Nearly 3,000 people died when the four planes crashed in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field. Speaking at the Pentagon on his first 9/11 anniversary as US president, Barack Obama paid tribute to the victims. He said the years would not diminish the loss of that day, and vowed to pursue al-Qaeda. "In the defence of our nation we will never waver," he said. "In pursuit of al-Qaeda we will never falter. Accompanied by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, he met members of victims' families and laid a wreath. Meanwhile, thousands gathered for ceremonies in a square near New York's Ground Zero. Vice-President Joe Biden attended the New York ceremony, where planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers, causing them to collapse. Ground zero is still a building site eight years after the attacks Enlarge Image Volunteers who helped in the aftermath of the attacks joined family members in reading the more than 2,700 names of the victims. The BBC's Matthew Price in New York says the Ground Zero area remains a building site, despite plans for a memorial, a museum and five new skyscrapers. Delays caused by political arguments and financial and legal disputes have left huge question marks over the entire project, he says. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was due to speak at the site of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.