New York City ? Searchers found more bones believed to belong to Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack victims Sunday in manholes and utility areas, areas that apparently were overlooked years ago.

Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler, who is overseeing the recovery effort, also said search officials had identified 12 additional underground areas that will be examined in coming days.

Utility and city officials have excavated about five underground areas, yielding more than 100 pieces of human remains, since construction workers discovered bones earlier in the week in a manhole excavated as part of work on a transit hub.

The medical examiner’s office said 18 pieces of remains were found Sunday. The bones found thus far range from tiny fragments to recognizable bones from skulls, torsos, feet and hands. Some are as large as whole arm and leg bones.

The underground pockets are located along the western edge of the 16-acre lower Manhattan site, underneath a service road built in March of 2002 to free up traffic on a major thruway that had been closed since the Sept. 11 attack.