An artist who survived the 9/11 terror attacks has a new focus helping her move on from the horror 10 years ago – her new baby son.

Vanessa Lawrence, 36, said her son, born just 15 weeks ago, has given her new impetus to move on from the trauma of the World Trade Centre attacks.

The Manchester-born Ms Lawrence, who moved to Scotland when she was six and now lives in Glasgow, was caught up in the terror attacks in 2001 as she undertook an artist’s residency in the twin towers after studying at the New York Studio School.

She was one of a number of artists using office space on the North Tower’s 91st floor as a studio, painting whenever they liked – often, in her case, at sunrise.

She felt the plane hit two floors above and managed to make her way down to safety – then got caught up in the collapse of the south tower.

Ten years later, she still struggles with memories of that day, but is managing to move on.

“Ten years is a long time, but I can be right back in it as if it was yesterday,” she said.

“A lot of it is very fresh in my head. There’s still things that affect me, like I smell something that takes me right back.

“It never leaves you. You move on, of course, but there’s still things I’m affected by which make me angry. But I have to deal with it, otherwise it will control me.

“Now, having my boy, it’s another focus – children pick up on emotions so it’s good for me, I’ve got to be able to control them.”

Ms Lawrence arrived at the studio at 6 a.m. on 9/11 and spent several hours painting, before going to the lobby to call a friend – she had no mobile phone.

As she stepped out of the lift back on the 91st floor she was thrown to one side by the blast of the plane hitting.

After retreating into an office, she and others from that floor made their way down the stairwells, climbing over debris in the dark.

At one point they crossed firefighters making their way up the stairs, before finally reaching the bottom.

“I saw the daylight at the bottom so it was like, ‘oh finally we’re out’, but we had no idea what we were about to see.

“The second we reached the bottom, it was like, ‘go, go go, move, move, don’t look, don’t look’. It was covered in debris, shattered glass everywhere, the things I saw were just horrible.”

She was ushered into the street when the south tower suddenly started to collapse: “I remember looking up and just seeing this cloud coming down, but it’s all in slow motion and silence in my head.”

She survived the collapse, amazingly unscathed by any falling debris. And as the cloud of dust cleared a fireman who was sheltering with her spotted blood: “It was the tiniest scratch on my foot. I was a very lucky girl.”

But Ms Lawrence struggled to cope with the events of that day, returning to the UK shortly after.

“I just couldn’t handle it”, she said. “Just being in the city, you could smell burning still for days, for weeks, and the noises, it was just so jumpy. One morning I thought, ‘I just need to go home’, and I was gone.”

She has returned to New York twice – a “great time” in 2004 after she found herself “pining” for the city, but a second visit in 2008 on the way back from a research trip to Australia and South America proved very different.

“It was horrible, I found it really hard to be there. I had nightmares, I woke up totally freaked out,” she said.

But Ms Lawrence, who has been with 33-year-old partner Alan Ferguson, a furniture maker, for four years, said she will return again one day.

And as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, she has told her story along with two other survivors in one-off television documentary I Survived... 9/11.

Ms Lawrence admitted she has started a new chapter in her life, whether by coincidence or a twist of fate.