New York Police removed a piece of plane debris on Wednesday (May 1) believed to be from one of the commercial airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Centre on Sept. 11, 2001.

The debris was discovered last week wedged between two lower Manhattan buildings, in a narrow alleyway behind 51 Park Place and 50 Murray Street in Manhattan's financial district. The item includes a "clearly visible" Boeing identification number, according to New York City police.

Police said the discovery was made on Wednesday (April 24) by a construction crew inspecting the rear of the Park Place building. The location is the site of an Islamic prayer space and community centre that opened amid controversy in the fall of 2011, two blocks from Ground Zero.

Nearly 12 years after two commercial airliners smashed into the two Manhattan skyscrapers, destroying them and killing nearly 3,000 people, city officials continue to turn up debris from the attack and identify human remains.

It will be up to the New York City medical examiner's office to determine whether to sift the soil around the site where the landing gear was found for more evidence.

This month the medical examiner's office said 39 possible human remains were discovered in 9/11 debris hauled years ago to the New York City borough of Staten Island, according to CBS News.

Since 2006, the painstaking work has led to 34 new positive identifications of victims.

Presented by Adam Justice