Chicago reacts to Trade Center attack

CHICAGO (AP) -- The Sears Tower was evacuated and the police department went on heightened alert Tuesday morning after massive attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Security was beefed up at the Sears Tower following news of the attack in New York, and then workers were ordered out of the building.

"Usually the building is so full of activity, and now there's no one in the hallways. It's creepy," said Cathy Grable, a 31-year-old interior designer who was leaving the building.

Down the block at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange people were leaving on their own and workers at restaurants were told to go home.

Chicago Police Department spokesman Pat Camden said police were in a "heightened condition" but refused to say what that meant.

Two planes crashed into the upper floors of both World Trade Center towers minutes apart Tuesday in what the President Bush said was an apparent terrorist attack. The crashes blasted fiery, gaping holes in the 110-story buildings. There was no immediate word on deaths or injuries.

An aircraft then crashed near the Pentagon, and the Capitol and White House were evacuated after bomb threats.