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Puzzlement as NYC tower seems to botch Belgium tribute

World Trade Center was lit in the black, yellow and red tricolor after deadly attacks in Brussels, but against the dark sky it appeared French

By AFP 23 March 2016, 2:47 pm
The full moon rises behind One World Trade Center on March 22, 2016, in New York, its mast displaying the colors of the Belgian flag in a show of support following the terrorist attacks in Brussels. (AFP/Trevor Collens)

New York’s World Trade Center was lit Tuesday in solidarity with Belgium after around 35 people were killed in bombings in Brussels, but the colors used to mark the attacks left some nonplussed.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo posted a picture of the 408-foot (124-meter) spire colored black, yellow and red on Twitter and said it was lit “in solemn solidarity with the people of Belgium.”

But pictures of the tribute from the tallest building in the United States, built on the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York, sparked confusion when they seemed to show different colors.

A series of photographs published by AFP and other media showed the colors to be blue, white and red — those of the French flag that lit up the Trade Center after the November attacks in Paris.

The full moon rises behind One World Trade Center on March 22, 2016, in New York, its mast displaying the colors of the Belgian flag. (AFP/Trevor Collens)

An AFP photographer said the colors on the World Trade Center appeared correct to the naked eye, but did not translate accurately on film, shot against the dark nighttime sky.

Neither the governor’s office nor the World Trade Center responded to requests for comment.

Uptown, New York’s iconic Empire State Building remained dark, forgoing its traditional white, in sympathy for the lives lost.

Other landmarks around the world, also photographed against a night sky, seemed to get the colors right.

This combination of pictures created on March 22, 2016 shows colors of the Belgian flag being projected on to (from top L) the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the town council building in Belgrade, the Trevi Fountain in Rome, the Royal Palace at Dam Square in Amsterdam and Rome’s Campidoglio in tribute to the victims of Brussels following the triple bomb attacks that killed about 35 people and left more than 200 people wounded. (AFP / AFP AND ANP)

Dozens of Belgian expatriates gathered in Union Square in Manhattan after night fell, bringing flowers, candles and flags to express solidarity with the victims and survivors of the attacks.

“It’s important to be here,” said Renaud Vanlangendonck, 33, a former teacher carrying his five-month-old daughter. “We saw it in New York, Paris, Istanbul… and now it’s our country. It’s horrible.”

There was a visible police presence in Union Square as law enforcement bolstered security across America’s largest city.

A ambulance man pushes a stretcher with a body bag, on March 23, 2016 outside the Maalbeek metro station in Brussels, one day after the attack that killed 20 people. (AFP / PHILIPPE HUGUEN)

The FBI and New York police were dispatching detectives as early as Tuesday night to investigate the Brussels attacks with at least three US citizens — Mormon missionaries — among the casualties.

John Miller, deputy police commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, made the remarks as the US government, state and city authorities stepped up security at airports and transit hubs.

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