THOUSANDS of photos showing Ground Zero in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks have been made public.

The haunting images of destruction appear to have been taken by an unidentified construction worker and were found in a stash of CDs bought at a house clearance sale.

Though the CDs were in poor condition, the photos were able to be retrieved and have now been posted on Flickr.

The images include pictures from above Ground Zero, as well as those from ground level, and show the twisted remains of the World Trade Center, where 2606 people died on 9/11.

They also show construction staff at work cleaning up the site and the damage to buildings surrounding Ground Zero.

There are also pictures of what appears to be a makeshift memorial to the some of the 300 New York  firefighters who died and a police officer surveying the scene.

The pictures were discovered by the partner of Dr Johnathan Burgess at the sale and he released them through archivist Jason Scott, the BBC reported.

"Generally these items are neglected at sales. It's very likely these would be in a dumpster by now had we not gone," he said.

Dr Burgess said he used a CD recovery service to retrieve some of the image.

"It's a miracle the discs transferred so well, CD Roms of that age are pretty spotty."

MYSTERY PHOTOGRAPHER

Dr Burgess said he and Mr Scott had so far been unsuccessful in tracking down the photographer.

Nearly 3,000 people died when four hijacked airliners were crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

The collapse of the Twin Towers sent a cloud of thick dust billowing over lower Manhattan and fires burned for weeks after.

Thousands of construction workers, police officers, firefighters and others spent time working in the soot, often without proper respiratory protection.

In the years since, many have seen their health decline, some with respiratory or digestive-system ailments that appeared almost immediately, others with illnesses that developed as they aged, including cancer.

More than 40,000 people have applied to the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

The plight of first responders has been taken up by comedian Jon Stewart.

The fund covers illnesses potentially related to being at the World Trade Center site, at the Pentagon or in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after the attacks.

It has awarded more than $5 billion in benefits, but about 21,000 claims remain pending.

The Justice Department said in February that the fund is being depleted and that benefit payments are being cut by up to 70 percent.

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