Roanoke Mayor David Bowers issued an apology this afternoon for comparing the closure of the Roanoke City Market building to the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

Bowers’ statement came during a discussion of the market building during a city council retreat on Tuesday.

Bowers had said, “To me it's very much like 9/11, I guess, in the sense that you had this catastrophe and people had to have hope after it.”

Bowers said he read the quote in The Roanoke Times today and had a “gut-wrenching reaction” which prompted him to issue the following statement:

“I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my comments regarding the city market building and the 9/11 catastrophe. In no way did I mean to imply the calamity we’re witnessing at the city market is in any way comparable to the tragic loss of life and terrorism of the 9/11 catastrophe. I’m very sorry for any connection in that regard.

“What I was trying to imply was that no matter what problem we face, including this calamity at the city market building, when we get beyond a certain point we need to try and rebuild confidence and have hope and try to demonstrate some success.”

The market building was closed on Sept. 19 after the Virginia Department of Health yanked all 10 vendors' licenses because inspectors found live mice, dead mice, mouse droppings and evidence of related food contamination.