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Cats invade internet during anti-terrorist raids in Brussels

When Belgian police requested press and social media silence during the anti-terrorist raids in Brussels on Sunday, Belgian people complied with a surreal reply and thousands tweeted cat pictures on the internet.

Belgian twitter users responded with posted pictures of cats.
Belgian twitter users responded with posted pictures of cats.
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β€œPolice are asking the public not to report their movements on social media, please support & rt #BrusselsLockdown,” tweeted Defence Minister Steven Vandeput on Sunday.

Unexpectedly instead of posting pictures of what they could see of police operations, the Belgian twitter users responded with posted pictures of cats and the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown went viral.

β€œI think in one hour I’ve seen more #lolcats than I’ve seen in the rest of my life,” said Mateusz Kukulka, a social media specialist.

β€œInstead of tweets about police activity in Brussels, here’s a picture of our cat Mozart,” wrote Hugo Janssen, a Dutch cameraman, one of the first to have the idea.

As more and more users joined in, there was also an international support for #BrusselsLockdown.

In a press conference just after midnight, Belgian authorities thanked β€œthe press and social media users for taking in account the needs of the ongoing operation,” and Belgian police offered a virtual bowl of pet food to internet cats on Monday.

Overnight, federal prosecutor spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt announced 16 arrests although β€œSalah Abdeslam was not caught during the raids”.

Five more were arrested in a new series of anti-terrorist raids on Monday.

Salah Abdeslam is a key suspect in the Paris attacks on 13 November that killed 130 people.

Brussels remains on Monday under security lockdown, metro system remains shut on and schools and universities.

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