On the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks using flight 11 and flight 175, a date often repeated as 9-11 just as the emergency phone number, the numbers that popped up for the New York Lottery were 9-1-1.

``The numbers were picked in the standard random fashion using all the same protocols,'' said Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman. ``It's just the way the numbers came up.'' Lottery officials said Thursday that 5,631 people selected the winning sequence. It wasn't immediately clear how much they won. The 9-1-1 combination was picked so often, it reached the lottery's set limit for combinations and sold out, Hapeman said. On any given day, seven to 10 sets of numbers are ``closed out,'' she said.

The winning number in the evening drawing of the New York Lottery three-digit "Numbers" game was 911 on Sept. 11, 2002. (N.Y. State Lottery)

Christopher M. Rump, an assistant professor of industrial engineering who studies probability at the University of Buffalo, said there was a one in 1,000 chance of the numbers ``9-1-1'' coming up on in the lottery.

``I'm a bit surprised, but I wouldn't characterize it as bizarre.'' Rump says. ``It's randomness. Every number has the same chance of coming up. People tend to read into these things. I'm sure that whatever numbers come up tonight will have some special meaning to someone, somewhere.''

A similar coincidence occurred Nov. 12 when the numbers 5-8-7 came up in the New Jersey Lottery the day American Airlines Flight 587 crashed on the New York coast.

Hapeman said Wednesday was the first time in more than a year that the 9-1-1 combination had come up in the New York Lottery. For the evening drawing, the lottery uses numbered balls circulating in a machine. When three levers are pressed, three balls pop up into tubes randomly.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)