Warning: This article contains content which some readers may find distressing.
The man who unveiled footage of 9/11 from an 'unseen angle' decades after the tragedy has explained why he did it.
Exactly 24 years on from that tremendously tragic day in human history, we remember the thousands of people who lost their lives during the al-Qaeda terrorist attack, which included the hijacking of two commercial planes that would be flown into the Twin Towers in New York City.
Last summer, one witness named Kei Sugimoto shared his camera recording taken from 'the roof of 64 St Marks Place in NYC' on the morning of 11 September, 2001.
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"I had just assumed it was an accident and there was a fire," he recalled in an exclusive interview with LADbible.
"I did see the second plane impact, and that's when I thought, 'Okay, for sure, this is not just an accident. This is intentional. It's a terrorist attack'."
Sugimoto's video ended up going viral after it was posted on YouTube, with users claiming it shows 'new angles of the collapse'.
"This footage offers a unique perspective not seen from the south or east," one wrote. "You are watching these angles for the first time ever."
Taken on a Sony VX2000 with teleconverter by the then-24-year-old, the harrowing clip shows black smoke billowing out from the towers before they eventually collapse.
Over on Reddit, one viewer pointed out: "It’s crazy that we’re almost 23 years out and still getting new footage."
Meanwhile, somebody else noted: "Makes me wonder how much history is being stored in people’s attics or basements waiting to be unearthed."
In the YouTube comments, Sugimoto explained his decision to release the footage after so long.
"I was cleaning my closet and found boxes full of Hi-8, Digital-8, and DV tapes," he wrote.
"When trying to play them back I noticed that maybe about a 3rd of them had demagnetized over time and were either blank, or suffering from major data corruption.
"After researching online I learned that video tapes are not immune from age even when stored in ideal conditions, so I franntially started to digitize them. Thus I'm just uploading the video now."
Sugimoto went on to mention that while he did witness the second plane crash, he didn’t film it.
"If I remember correctly, I think I ran to get my video camera after seeing the second plane crash sensing that this was no ordinary accident," he added.
Users thanked him for sharing the ‘unique perspective’ and called the ‘crystal clear’ footage ‘devastating’.
Dan Seddon