SHATTERED CITY CLINGS TO HOPE
As Brussels mourns, a resilient vow: ‘We have all these nationalities, and live peacefully together. And we will again’
A Belgian flag draped over his shoulders, Kherfan Ayman sat in a sea of flowers, candles and international flags in the centre of his city’s scenic town square, spending10 minutes carefully writing out his simple message in chalk: “I love Brussels.”
“For 13 years it’s been my home,” said Ayman, 37, originally from the Palestinian Territories. “We have all these nationalities, and live peacefully together. And we will again.”
The makeshift memorial in Brussels’ Place de la Bourse grew throughout the day Wednesday, one day after deadly terrorist attacks struck this city. Stunned residents who gathered to share their despair also showed their resiliency. “Gardons Espoir,” one man spray-painted in big bold letters on the pavement — “Keep up hope.”
But everywhere there were reminders that everyday life has been dramatically altered. Heavily armed military guards stood steps away from the memorial’s chalk messages and glowing candles, assault rifles in hand. Sirens pierced the quiet soon after a moment of silence was held midday to honour the people who died, at least 31 so far, and more than 200 who were injured.
The subway has reopened and high-speed trains from nearby cities have resumed travel to Brussels, but police and military checkpoints, some with military tanks, are set up at all entrances to ensure no one goes in without a search.
Wednesday marked the first of three national days of mourning in Brussels following attacks that Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel described as the most tragic in the country’s peacetime history.
It is the second time in four months that a terrorist act has shut down the city.
For some in Belgium, fast becoming known worldwide as a fertile ground for violent extremism, it was far from unexpected. Terrorism experts tracking jihadists through Europe have for months been warning that the country has become a breeding ground for extremism and a hotbed for violent jihadists, many of whom go on to fight in Syria and Iraq.
“What we feared has happened,” a sombre Michel said Tuesday.
Riding on the Brussels metro Tuesday morning when there was a sudden “boom” and an intense gust of wind, Alice Kafarhire had no doubt terrorists had struck. Before she got on the subway, she’d heard murmurings of an attack at the airport, and had planned to find out more when she arrived home.
The 31-year-old had just dropped her young sons off at school and was headed home — passing for the second time through the Maelbeek station, where the explosion occurred — when the boom blasted through the train, cutting off the lights and filling her subway car with smoke. She could hear screaming and crying further down the car, and began to panic. She put her scarf over her mouth in an effort to filter out the thickening smoke.
Kafarhire doesn’t believe she was in the same train as the one hit by the explosion, but thinks she may have been directly across from it, on the opposite track.
After a few minutes trapped in the car — as young and old tried in vain to make contact with loved ones above ground — emergency workers in headlamps forced open the subway door and told everyone to walk down the dark, smoky tracks. “I ran and I barely looked up. . . I thought there might be other attacks.”
She and others made their way to the next station, deserted except for police officers waiting on the platform to help pull escapees up from track level. On the street, she talked a taxi driver who already had a fare into taking her home. She immediately called to check on her kids, who were fine.
“I’m so thankful that they weren’t there when it happened. It was like a stampede in the tunnel, and they’re so little,” she said.