Americans in Oxford spoke of their shock in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

Julie Wood, a worker at Oxfam, in Summertown, said she and her husband Jay had been desperately trying to contact relatives in New York.

Mrs Wood said: "I have a friend at the White House and I couldn't get in contact with him. I've just heard that he is all right.

"This is just tragic, not just for those in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but people travelling on the planes as well.

"After I heard, I just couldn't do anything but think about it."

A spokesman for St Clare's International School, in Banbury Road, Oxford, said many of the American students were distraught at the news.

He said: "They are very upset at the moment and are coming in and out of the lodge trying to phone their relatives at home.

"They are trying to get through, but are finding it difficult.

"They don't know if everything is all right and there's a lot of tension at the moment."

Amanda Castleman, from Seattle, who lives on a narrowboat on the Oxford Canal, said she and her husband, John Franklin, had been trying to contact friends in New York.

She said: "We are in shock. I think America has been incredibly isolated and incredibly lucky not to have provoked terrorist incidents to this point.

"It's still staggering the magnitude of it.

"There's nothing that could have prepared people for it. I'm hoping our President won't do anything drastic."

A spokesman for Oxfam said staff were desperately trying to contact the charity's Wasington office, but phone lines had been constantly jammed.

She said: "I think people's relatives must have been phoning them all afternoon to make sure that they were all right."