Cheers at Ground Zero for crowds who ‘have waited a long time for this day’

Crowds gathered at Ground Zero, the former site of the World Trade Centre, cheering and waving flags and singing the national anthem.

Lisa Ramaci, a New Yorker whose husband was a freelance journalist killed in the Iraq war, said: “We’ve been waiting a long time for this day.

“I think it’s a relief for New York tonight, just in the sense that we had this 10 years of frustration just building and building, wanting this guy dead, and now he is, and you can see how happy people are.”

She was holding a flag and wearing a T-shirt depicting the twin towers and, in crosshairs, bin Laden. Nearby, a man held up a cardboard sign that said: “Obama 1, Osama 0.”

In Times Square, dozens stood together on a clear spring night and broke into applause when a New York Fire Department vehicle drove by, and flashed its lights and sounded its siren.

Hundreds of firefighters were killed in 2001 when the Twin Towers collapsed as they tried to help people inside.

In Washington, a crowd began gathering in front of the White House even before President Barack Obama addressed the nation. Numbers quickly grew, and within half an hour the crowd had filled the street and begun spilling over into nearby Lafayette Park.

Marlene English, who lives in Virginia and lobbies on defence issues, said: “It’s not over, but it’s one battle that’s been won – and it’s a big one.”

She said she had baked thousands of biscuits to send to friends serving in Iraq and Afghanistan over the years, and that she was at the White House because they could not be.

The celebrations began late on Sunday night after Americans began hearing about the death of bin Laden from bulletins on television, texts and calls from family and friends, and through posts on social networking sites.

As news of the President’s announcement began to filter across the country, the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies were in the middle of a baseball game in Philadelphia.

Chants of “USA! USA!” began among the crowd at Citizens Bank Park. Fans could be seen all over the stadium checking phones and sharing the news.

Meanwhile in towns the length and breadth of America, motorists honked their car horns as they drove along the main streets. In bars across the country, big-screen TVs that normally show sports were all tuned to the news about bin Laden.