Fire Alarms Systems

Rich's view of the picture was instantly disputed. Walter Sipser, identifying himself as the guy in shades at the right of the picture, said he and his girlfriend, apparently sunbathing on a wall, were in fact "in a profound state of shock and disbelief". Hoepker, they both complained, had photographed them without permission in a way that misrepresented their feelings and behaviour.

History is not a heroic story, nor memory a block of marble inscribed with imperishable words of grief and rage. As Tony Blair - whose own response to this act of inhuman cruelty was to have such historic consequences - says of that day in his book A Journey, "It is amazing how quickly shock is absorbed and the natural rhythm of the human spirit reasserts itself . We remember, but not as we felt at that moment."