Washington, Apr 1 (IANS/EFE): New York City begins sifting Monday through tonnes of rubble from buildings on the site of the Sep 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in search of human remains that will allow more victims to be identified.

According to a communique from New York City's deputy mayor of operations, Cas Holloway, cited by the NBC network, 60 truckloads of rubble have been collected over the past 2 1/2 years from the construction zone known as Ground Zero.

Approximately 450 cubic meters of earth and debris have been taken from the World Trade Center area where the Twin Towers once stood and which collapsed when suicide pilots crashed hijacked airliners into them on 9/11, burying 2,750 people.

Due to the dimension of the collapse and the fire, the remains of some 1,634 people have never been identified.

In 2006, New York City Hall widened the search for human remains after finding several of the victims' bones. Since then another 34 victims have been identified.

Holloway said that DNA testing will continue until all possible identifications have been completed.