The Eiffel Tower lit up with the colours of the Belgian flag on Tuesday evening in a show of solidarity with Brussels after deadly attacks in the Belgian capital sent a shudder of recognition through Paris.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assaults on Brussels airport and a metro train – a stark reminder of the shootings and suicide bombings which killed 130 people in Paris last November, also claimed by the militant Islamist group.
The blasts in Brussels occurred four days after the arrest in the Belgian capital of a suspected participant in the Paris attacks. Police in both capitals had been on alert for post-arrest reprisals.
“We are united,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said in a tweet announcing the special Eiffel Tower illuminations.
A French official later said eight French nationals had been wounded, three seriously, in the Brussels attacks.
A similar light show played across the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and at French president François Hollande’s official residence, the French tricolour flew at half mast and Belgian flags stood at the entrance.
In another show of solidarity, Rome lit its Trevi fountain and its city hall with the colours of the Belgian flag.
“There is no security in Europe any more,” said Samira, a 42-year-old social worker in Paris. “It’s very worrying.”
The front page of Le Monde bore a cartoon depicting a person draped in the French flag with an arm around another wearing the black, yellow and red national colours of Belgium, with the dates November 13th and March 22nd inscribed underneath.
The Gare du Nord station in Paris swarmed with police, its Brussels-bound Thalys trains – on which a gunman was disarmed last year – stuck at platforms since the morning.
Yeng Yi (25), a Chinese student based in Barcelona, was among those affected by the train cancellations. “I’m terrified by what happened. Maybe I’ll go back to Barcelona,” she said.
Others were more sanguine. “We’re not worried,” said Kerstin Ruffert from Dusseldorf, Germany, travelling around Europe with her husband and their two daughters. “It could happen anywhere in Europe, so we won’t change our travel plans.”
– (Reuters)