ALBANY, N.Y.?Officials say it was just a coincidence, but many people found it chilling and maybe suspicious, too: On the anniversary of Sept. 11, the winning numbers in the New York lottery were 9-1-1.

Lottery officials said Thursday that 5,631 people had selected the tragic numbers. They won $500 each.

“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.”

The 9-1-1 combination was picked so often, it reached the lottery’s set limit for combinations and sold out by Tuesday evening, Hapeman said. On any given day, seven to 10 sets of numbers are “closed out,” she said.

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 in New York City.