These freshers dressed as 9/11 for Halloween
Outrage as pair from University of Chester wear blazing Twin Towers costume – and they won the £150 fancy dress prize
Two students have caused outrage after they won a cash prize for their Halloween fancy dress outfit – the blazing Twin Towers.
Freshers Amber Langford and Annie Collinge, both from the University of Chester, mocked the 9/11 terror attacks where more than 2,700 people lost their lives.
Their outfits – marked North Tower and South Tower – included models of the two hijacked planes crashing into the New York skyscrapers.
The costumes also had tiny models of people falling to their deaths and were topped off with the women wearing smouldering Stars and Stripes flags on their heads.
And the pair won £150 between them after being voted best fancy dress by a DJ at the huge Rosies club in Chester.
Amber’s pilot dad Martin Langford – who was flying jets in the US when al-Qaeda destroyed the World Trade Center in 2001 – has vowed to “have a little chat” with his daughter.
The retired airman, 52, is reported to have said: “I didn’t know anything about it, but I’m not happy about it.
“She knows I’m a pilot and that’s not cool at all. We will be having a little chat, I think.”
Mr Langford’s privately-educated daughter, a biology student at the University of Chester, donned the matching costume with pal Annie, a criminology student.
They grinned and waved as they paraded their outfits in front of hundreds of partygoers on October 31.
But some of the crowd booed the award and others vented their anger on social media sites, including the club’s own Facebook page.
Ashley Goodall wrote: “Low! That’s not even Halloween that’s just a very bad joke, not like you’d walk around American like that.”
Andy Burns said: “That’s a bit too far that is”, Andy Tibbett described it as ‘”Ignorant” and Chris Alliston said “Rats.”
Millie Robinson tweeted: “Can not actually believe that someone people went as the twin towers blowing up on halloween man.”
Disgusted student George Borsberry, 20, said: “Rosie’s approve of the 9/11 killings, and gave someone #150 pounds for mocking the victims.
“Never seen such disgusting behaviour by anyone.”
George, a mechanical engineer, added yesterday: “I was completely outraged.
“Not only were they labelled the “best dressed”, but they were also given £150 to dress up in this way and mock the victims and the families of the victims.
“We asked to see the manager to complain and was turned down due to him being “too busy” to see us.
“After waiting two and a half hours to see the person who decided this dreadful winner all we got was ‘sorry but it was a good costume’.
“He then had the audacity to say there were people in other disgusting costumes such as Jimmy Savile, as if to justify that it was alright to dress like that.”
George, from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, added: “Where can the line be drawn?
“I might dress up as Hitler next year, or a depiction of a gas chamber with loads of dead Jews coming out of it, or something resembling the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, killing over 66,000 people.
“To find a depiction of people dying and falling from the buildings funny, and to reward it with money, for me is an absolute disgrace and completely disrespectful on every level.
“I’ve been going to this nightclub for a number of years, but never in my life have I seen something treated with such disrespect and complete ignorance.”
Disgraced clubbers Amber and Annie reportedly apologised for their offensive costumes.
The pair said: “We never meant to be offensive, but we apologise if any offence was caused. The idea was to depict a modern-day horror that happened in our lifetime and was not intended as a joke.”
The University of Chester and Chester Students’ Union said in a statement: “We utterly condemn the appalling photos. Both organisations have begun and urgent investigation with a view to taking the necessary action.”
Rosies is owned by the Stonegate Pub Company which runs 540 pubs, bars and clubs across the UK, including well-known chains such as Yates’s and Slug and Lettuce.
A company spokesman said: “We are extremely concerned that an award of vouchers was made to two young women who were dressed in a distasteful and offensive manner.
“There was a serious error of judgement made on the evening by a contracted DJ to award such a prize and we apologise to anybody who may have been upset or offended by this.
“A full investigation by the company is taking place.”