U.S. to reduce payouts from Sept. 11 victims fund

FILE PHOTO: The Tribute in Light installation is illuminated over lower Manhattan as seen from The National September 11 Memorial & Museum marking the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, U.S., September 11, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

(Reuters) - The special master overseeing a U.S. government fund to compensate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on Friday said future awards will be significantly reduced because the fund is running short of money.

Rupa Bhattacharyya, the special master, said the $2.375 billion remaining in the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund is not enough to compensate the thousands of victims and family members still eligible for awards.

About $5 billion has been paid on more than 21,000 claims to the fund, which is slated to expire in December 2020.

The attacks involved the crashing of airplanes hijacked by al Qaeda into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon outside Washington, and a Pennsylvania field. Nearly 3,000 people died.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)