Two British teens chose extremely controversial costumes this Halloween – they dressed as the Twin Towers during the 9/11 attacks.

According to The Sun newspaper, 19-year-olds Amber Langford and Annie Collinge dressed as the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center. The costumes are not just the two towers, though – the outfits were complete with plane crashes and hats with American flags.

Even more surprising – they actually won a costume contest at a Halloween party at Rosies nightclub in Chester, England and were awarded £150 ($240) for the “best dressed” category.

John Feal, president of The Feal Good Foundation, which aims to help those affected by 9/11, said of the girls' choice in costumes, "The insensitivity level for this act of ignorance is topped by none. As for the nightclub who allowed it, sponsored it and endorsed it, shame on you.”

Langford and Collinge, whose father is a retired United Express pilot who was flying jets when the 9/11 attack took place, apologized for their costume decision. "The idea was to depict a serious, modern-day horror that happened in our lifetime and was not intended as a joke," they said.

Rosies nightclub also issued an apology for the decision to choose the offensive costumes as a winner. "We are extremely concerned that an award was made to two women dressed in a distasteful and offensive manner," a spokesperson reported.

The story made it to the cover of The Sun, which they titled “Towering Stupidity” and posted on their Twitter page.

NBC News reports that nearly 3,000 people died in the al-Qaeda attacks on September 11, 2001 - 67 of those people were U.K. citizens.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons