British students cause outrage with ‘distasteful’ Twin Towers costumes

The British public and 9/11 attack victims groups are condemning two British university students for dressing up as the burning Twin Towers for Halloween.

University of Chester students Amber Langford and Annie Collinge dressed up as “South Tower” and “North Tower” to participate in a costume competition at Rosies nightclub in Chester, England.

The 19 year olds' costumes featured flames, planes and people jumping out of the buildings, and they wore hats designed to look like wreckage with American flags sticking out of them.

The club awarded them a $240 “best dressed” prize.

A spokeswoman for the University of Chester said the school and the Chester Students' Union “have begun an urgent investigation into the circumstances around which these images have been taken with a view to taking the necessary action."

"The insensitivity level for this act of ignorance is topped by none,” John Feal, president of New York-based 9/11 victims’ organization The FealGood Foundation, told UK newspaper The Sun. “As for the nightclub who allowed it, sponsored it and endorsed it, shame on you.”

"Following the club night Halloween promotion that took place at Rosies, Chester, we are extremely concerned that an award of shopping vouchers was made to two young women who were dressed in a distasteful and offensive manner,” a spokeswoman for the Stonegate Pub Company, which runs the nightclub, said. “There was a serious error of judgment made on the evening by a contracted DJ to award such a prize and we apologize to anybody who may have been upset or offended by this."

In a statement to The Sun, the students claimed, "The idea was to depict a serious, modern-day horror that happened in our lifetime and was not intended as a joke." They added: "We never meant to be offensive, but we apologize if any offense was caused.”

More from GlobalPost: Sorority sisters' makeup blunder: blackface