by STEPHEN RAWLIN A COUPLE are today still reeling after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Centre where they were due to marry next week.

Darren Watson, 27, and his 23-year-old fiancee Sonia Clark, of High Woods, Colchester, were due to tie the knot in a ceremony on the 107th floor of the north tower.

After 18 months of planning, they were all set to fly out with seven close family members on Wednesda for the service on Friday.

Mr Watson, a technician at the Gazette's print works, said: "We were printing the Evening Gazette when we found out. They told us to change plate one and when I asked why I couldn't believe it.

"After the initial shock, I got the shivers thinking that a week earlier and it could have been the whole family there that is how close it was."

Thousands of people were killed when terrorists ploughed two hijacked planes into the World Trade Centre's twin towers in Manhattan, New York, just before 9am local time on Tuesday.

Miss Clark, a radio journalist, said: "When someone first told me I thought they were winding me up. I felt physically sick and even today it still has not sunk in.

"You have just got to be positive we could have been preparing to get married there that day. I am just relieved I was not there with my close family."

The couple have spent the past few days hurriedly re-arranging their wedding and are now set to get hitched on Paradise Island in the Bahamas on Friday, September 21.

British Airways and holiday company Kuoni immediately gave the couple refunds, followed later by Virgin Airways Last Updated on Fri 14 September 19101 at 15:0