Why Belgians have been flooding Twitter with cat pictures during the Brussels lockdown

The city of Brussels has been on lockdown since Saturday on the highest level of terror alert. As authorities warned of possible attacks similar to the ones carried out in Paris on Nov. 13, they asked Belgians not to share any information that could tip off suspects to the details of the anti-terror raids, The New York Times reports.

It seems like Belgians obliged in a very specific, silly manner — by aggressively tweeting about cats.

There were reports of suspicious activity:

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And clearly authentic photos of the latest police technology:

Cat jokes brought a lot of (presumably bored and homebound) people together:

But it looks like not everyone in Brussels got the safety memo:

The lighthearted tweets weren't lost on the federal police. On Monday, their press account tweeted in thanks of "the cats who helped us yesterday." Julie Kliegman