Brussles: When Belgian authorities asked people to stop commenting on ongoing police operations in social media to avoid tipping off suspects during Sunday's raids, people unexpectedly responded by tweeting cat pictures.
The hashtag #BrusselsLockdown suddenly shifted from a serious to humorous tweets with a flood of pictures of cats in all kinds of situations -holding their paws up as captured suspects, posing as police snipers with automatic weapons, and ignoring police warnings to stay away from windows.
One tweet showed Prime Minister Charles Michel with a penciled in cat's moustache.
Federal prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt says police "want to thank the press and social media users because they took the need of this operation into account."
The tweets came as police carried out 22 raids in Brussels and southern Charleroi in which 16 suspects were detained, but not Paris fugitive Salah Abdeslam.
See below some of the tweets from Belgians and the response from across the world.
Stay inside they said. #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/hpAfV417Hf— Julia Reda (@Senficon) November 22, 2015
"Il y a mon ze-bla dans l'enquête..." #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/B6WpbNcJd8— Matteu Maestracci (@MMaestracci) November 22, 2015
C'est solide l'info selon laquelle la police belge utiliserait des drones ? #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/0siyt4u4pW— Matteu Maestracci (@MMaestracci) November 22, 2015
Les Belges qui inondent le hashtag #BrusselsLockdown avec des chats, preuve que c'est le meilleur peuple du monde pic.twitter.com/oawcxNho8g — CloneWeb (@cloneweb) November 22, 2015
J'aime mon pays d'amour ❤️ #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/B5ZDBychKC— Alexandre Loos (@AlexLoos) November 22, 2015
Picture of Belgium's National Security Council when the door opens in the middle of the meeting #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/4oWuBRtipO— Florence (@flowindey) November 22, 2015
Wake me up when it's all over #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/VCXpQZuuDV— Vicky Whitehartlane (@vickywrightspu1) November 23, 2015
Face à la menace terroriste, les Belges bombardent les réseaux de chatons. #Brusselslockdown https://t.co/9iluA1Y8ds pic.twitter.com/JDVidSBWpT— Gaëtan Fragnière (@G_FRGNR) November 23, 2015
#BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/0UP7H8Vivk— Daniela Longinotti (@danielalongi) November 23, 2015
#BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/xkylpYCiPd— Rafff (@Raph_imhoff) November 23, 2015
Go easy on the catnip during the #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/Np6YZMSvid— Furrystoat (@Furrystoat) November 23, 2015
Where are these Terrorists? #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/RskzUeE1Bu— Olivier Panhuys (@OPanhuys) November 23, 2015
Belgique, dans mon cœur ! #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/ZqYbLJrU2J— Fuji San (@FujiSan76) November 23, 2015
"hey, WHY DID YOU STOP PLAYING?" says my Belgian cat... #brusselslockdown #paris pic.twitter.com/6Lmw2gmagq— Giordano Cossu (@Agashya) November 23, 2015
Belgians are not afraid! #BrusselsLockdown pic.twitter.com/8TUkm9ebaZ— Charles Dameron (@cdameron1) November 23, 2015