As they sang in Thornaby, Teesside, bunches of flowers, each with touching messages of sympathy and goodwill, were placed gently at their feet.

One member said: "That one little thing made me think ‘Hey, not everybody hates us’."

Clean Slate is an 11-strong Baptist group. Their home town of Vermont is the same distance from New York as Darlington is from London.

They have been in the North-East since Saturday, when they flew from Philadelphia as the guests of the Corporation Road Baptist Church, in Darlington.

The group had just finished singing in Darlington’s Market Square when they heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Centre.

Keith Darwin, a member of the group, said they had gone for some food when their host, Malcolm Potter, ran in, clutching his mobile phone, and told them the twin towers had been attached.

He said: "We didn’t believe him at first. We just didn’t take it in.

"We were sitting in a café with pictures of the Empire State Building and the New York skyline on the wall.

Pastor Jim Cook said: "Everyone we know will know someone who has been affected, and we will still be running into people for generations to come who were affected.

"This will never be forgotten."

Singer Lisa Robinson said: "When we heard a plane go over the other day, it was like we all drew a breath and we were scared. It will be the same when we go home."

"Just because it has happened once, doesn’t mean it can’t happen again."

"They have turned America’s freedom, for example the right to learn to fly a plane if you want to, into a destructive weapon, and that is a shock for us."

Lisa said:" I felt like an ambassador for America. It has been very moving. People have been approaching us, just to say they are sorry, they are thinking of us. This was before even we knew there were British people missing, too.

"Others have offered a place to stay. We were honoured yesterday by leading the three minute silence, not only for the Americans lost, but the British and all of the other nations who have lost loved ones."