Brussels keeps highest security alert. Schools, universities, metro will reopen on Wednesday.
Yesterday, Belgian armed police mounted raids across the country after the prime minister announced a third day of lockdown in the capital for fear a new, Paris-style mass attack may be imminent.
Police said they arrested at least 16 suspects in 19 raids late on Sunday night. But Salah Abdeslam, the 26-year-old French, a suspect believed to have played a key role in the terrorist attacks in Paris 10 days ago, was not among them.
Prior to last night’s raid, Belgian police asked that internet users not tweet anything about the operation, for fear that the information would tip off their targets. So, Belgians flooded the #BrusselsLockdown hashtag with photos of their cats, Joinfo.ua reports with the reference to The Verge.
It’s not entirely clear how the trend started, but the AFP reports that it may have been launched by Dutch cameraman Hugo Janssen, who tweeted: “Instead of tweets about police activity in Brussels, here’s a picture of our cat Mozart.” Within hours, the hashtag was flooded with cats, memes, and even a few dogs posted by Twitter users around the world.
Бельгийцы отреагировали на призыв полиции к тишине в Twitter котиками.https://t.co/CAFj3zTc2W #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/XJNoM6dL2P
— MMR (@MMR_online) 23 ноября 2015
Cats take over #Brusselslockdown Twitter hashtag as Belgium hunts for terror suspect https://t.co/qx6sLxkXEO pic.twitter.com/G1aRbT1Uxw
— VentureBeat (@VentureBeat) 23 ноября 2015
May the force be with us. #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/m9OuEVhfXS
— TineEeckhout (@TineEeckhout) 22 ноября 2015
#BrusselsLockdown en live. pic.twitter.com/z9qVWhtMA9
— Delphine Jory (@Ladyblogue) 22 ноября 2015