Satanic Face Appears For Some In Twin Towers Photo

Plumes of smoke pour from the World Trade Center buildings in New York, Tuesday, after two planes crashed into the upper floors of both World Trade Center towers minutes apart. Many newspaper readers who saw this photograph called to ask if the photo had been doctored to include an image of satan in the smoke plume. The Associated Press denied that anyone altered the picture.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Several newspapers that printed an Associated Press photo of fire consuming a World Trade Center tower received calls from readers Wednesday saying they saw a strange shape in the smoke.

Some readers said they could identify eyes, a nose, a mouth and horns in the black and gray clouds -- and they wondered if the photo had been manipulated to include a satanic face. Vin Alabiso, an AP vice president and the executive photo editor, said the photo was untouched. Readers were reacting to natural indentations in the smoke clouds, he said Wednesday.

''AP has a very strict written policy which prohibits the alteration of the content of a photo in any way,'' he said. ''The smoke in this photo combined with light and shadow has created an image which readers have seen in different ways.''

As a fire generates heat, it draws in cold air, while unburned debris swirls through the smoke, causing the clouds to look thinner in some areas and thicker in others, he said. The natural wind currents can contribute to the effect, he said.

The Saginaw (Mich.) News received about 50 calls Wednesday after enlarging the photo to cover almost half the front page in Tuesday's editions, reporter Bryce Hoffman said.