Two 9/11 victims have been named after being identified almost 24 years later

Almost two-and-a-half decades on from the horrific 9/11 attacks, and investigating authorities have recently released the names of two victims of the September 2001 attack.

The terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 - which saw two planes hijacked by al-Qaeda plummet into the two World Trade Centre Twin Tower buildings - were said to have claimed the lives of over 2,700 people.

In an announcement made on Thursday, the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) released the full names, ages, and origins of these two individuals.

Only 1,653 victims have been identified since, according to Indy100, and as such, they've become the 1,651st and 1,652nd victims of the coordinated September 11 attacks to be positively identified through DNA analysis.

The first victim to have been identified is 26-year-old Ryan Fitzgerald, of Floral Park, New York.

Ryan Fitzgerald had been working in the South Tower (Family Handout)

OCME stated this week that, just weeks before the terrorist attack, Fitzgerald had purchased his own property in Manhattan.

He worked as a foreign currency trader at Fiduciary Trust Company International, and had been inside the South Tower on the day of the attack. Fitzgerald had reportedly called a family member in the minutes after the North Tower was struck, letting them know he was safe and preparing to leave the building.

Minutes later, his office was struck by the jet. His remains, as per News 12, were recovered in 2002.

The second victim identified this week is 72-year-old Barbara Keating of Palm Springs, California, where she was known for running a church.

The two-time cancer survivor had been travelling from Logan International Airport in Boston to New York City on American Airlines Flight 11 - the aircraft that hit the North Tower before collapsing.

It's understood she'd been travelling home from a summer vacation in Massachusetts when she boarded the Boeing 767.

Everyone on board the plane was killed, with hundreds more dying as a result of the collision into the tower.

Barbara Keating was the second victim to be named (Family Handout)

An ATM card, believed to belong to Keating, was discovered in the rubble of the crash. Though her family were warned not to get their hopes up, a hairbrush was later used to positively identify her as one of the victims.

According to ABC News, Fitzgerald, Keating and a third unnamed woman's identifications were made following 'ongoing outreach to families for DNA reference samples' by the OCME.

The body has now been positively identified as many as 25 other individuals who lost their lives in the attack, bringing the new total of unidentified victims who were killed in the attacks down to 1,099 of 2,753.

Discussing the achievement, Chief Medical Examiner Dr Jason Graham said: "Nearly 25 years after the disaster at the World Trade Centre, our commitment to identify the missing and return them to their loved ones stands as strong as ever.

The two towers were struck in coordinated attacks in 2001 (Neville Elder/Corbis via Getty Images)

"Each new identification testifies to the promise of science and sustained outreach to families despite the passage of time. We continue this work as our way of honouring the lost."

Eric Adams, the New York Mayor, added of the findings: "The pain of losing a loved one in the September 11th terror attacks echoes across the decades, but with these three new identifications, we take a step forward in comforting the family members still aching from that day.

"As a former law enforcement officer who served our city on 9/11, I understand deeply the feeling of loss so many families have experienced."

He added: "We hope the families receiving answers from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner can take solace in the city’s tireless dedication to this mission.”