Steel from Twin Towers used for 9/11 artwork

The work, made by New York artist Miya Ando from steel recovered from the World Trade Centre, was commissioned by the 9/11 London Project to mark the launch of its new programme to educate schoolchildren about the attacks.

The unveiling came on the same day that the cousin of a British-born hero of 9/11, who died in the Twin Towers, has spoken of his continuing sadness and pride at what his relative did that day.

Rick Rescorla, who was head of security for banking firm Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, is credited with saving 2,700 people 10 years ago by making sure they left the World Trade Centre’s South Tower before it collapsed.

The 62-year-old Cornishman, who became a US citizen in the 1960s and was decorated during service in the Vietnam War, foresaw the terrorist attacks, with his warnings featuring in a Channel 4 documentary in 2005, entitled The Man Who Predicted 9/11. He made staff at the bank regularly practise escape drills which later saved their lives.

He was last seen going back up the stairs of the tower looking for stragglers. His body has never been found.

His cousin, Jon Daniels, a former pub landlord who still lives in Hayle, Cornwall, where Mr Rescorla was born and grew up, remembers all too well the events of that day, which he said are brought home again with every anniversary.

“You learn to live with it, what happened. But obviously, being such a major event it probably will be, if it isn’t already, one of the most televised and reported events that has happened in modern times,” Mr Daniels said.

“Your stomach still churns when you see the towers go down.”

The UK suffered more losses in the September 11 2001 attacks on America than any other country apart from the US itself.