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Messages from Brussels terror memorial preserved online

14:27 04/03/2018

Thousands of messages of solidarity left in the wake of the 2016 Brussels terror attacks have been digitised and will be made available to consult online.

After the attacks at Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station on 22 March, thousands of people spontaneously gathered at the Bourse for days, leaving notes and etching messages on the pavement in chalk.

The City of Brussels carefully collected and photographed the messages left both at the Bourse and at Maelbeek station. Over the past two years, the city's archivists have meticulously digitalised all this material to keep a record and make it accessible to the public.

From 15 March, about 5,000 documents will be available online on the Archives of the City of Brussels website. More documents will be added as the archiving work continues.

City alderwoman Karine Lalieux, who initiated the project, said: "For the memory and for future generations it was primordial to save these many messages of peace and hope and also to remind us of the remarkable surges of solidarity and the calls to peaceful living together."

Written by Richard Harris