Following the ruthless Paris terrorist attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) extremist group, Belgian police asked the country's citizens not to make any Twitter posts about its operations to hunt down the ISIS terrorists. The country's federal law enforcement asked the capital city's residents to support the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown during the terror alert, which resulted in pet owners posting funny cat photos that later went viral.
Brussels is usually a busy city during this time of year due to the holiday season. However, the streets were empty as Belgian police hunted down the ISIS members responsible for the killing of 130 people on November 13.
Brussels' residents followed the federal police's request. Yet they also made hard times easier by posting hilarious cat pictures of their furry pets.
Mateusz Kukulka is a social medial specialist. He shared that he saw more #lolcats hashtags in one hour than he had seen during his entire life.
The first person to make a funny feline post seems to be a Dutch TV channel's cameraman, according to Daily Mail. He tweeted a picture of his family's cat Mozart.
Then other Belgian tweeters posted the same kind of images. Some shared cats looking scared or sneaky.
Others posted surreal photos. They included an image of two Star Wars stormtroopers riding cat-shaped scooters.
Still other posts used cute cat pics to encourage their countrymen to be brave or relaxed. One tweet's title read "Keep Calm!"
The hashtag went viral nationally, and then received global support. That included posts from countries 'such as Ireland.
After the Brussels lockdown was lifted, the national prosecutor and police services thanked social media users and media outlets for their help. The manhunt for ISIS terrorists resulted in 16 arrests.
Federal police made a Twitter post on November 23, Monday as a symbol of their thanks. It showed a picture of a big cat food bowl that read "Police," and a tweet thanking the felines who helped them, according to CNN.
Here are some of the tweeted cat pictures during the Belgian terror alert: