New York identifies 3 more 9/11 victims nearly 24 years after attacks

Nearly 24 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, New York City officials have identified three more victims of the World Trade Center disaster, US political news outlet The Hill reported Friday.

Using advanced DNA analysis, the city's medical examiner office confirmed the identities of Ryan Fitzgerald of New York, Barbara Keating of California, and a third woman whose name has not been released.

"Each new identification testifies to the promise of science and sustained outreach to families despite the passage of time. We continue this work as our way of honoring the lost," Chief Medical Examiner Jason K. Graham said in a Thursday statement.

Mayor Eric Adams called the development "a step forward in comforting the family members still aching from that day," adding: "The pain of losing a loved one in the September 11th terror attacks echoes across the decades."

The identifications bring the confirmed toll at the site to 1,653, with about 1,100 victims of the terrorist al-Qaeda attacks still unidentified.

Both Fitzgerald and Keating's names were already inscribed on the 9/11 Memorial at ground zero of the attack in New York.