Victims of the Brussels attacks
- Published
Adelma Tapia Ruiz, 37, died at Brussels airport while her husband and twin daughters played nearby
Most of the people killed in the terror attacks in Brussels on 22 March have now been identified.
Thirty-two people were killed in the three bomb attacks at Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station and many more were injured. The toll was reduced from 35 after Belgian authorities found some victims had been counted twice.
The casualties came from a wide variety of countries including Belgium, Colombia, Peru, France, Germany, Britain, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Spain and the US.
Police say the task of identifying the dead in the attacks was slowed by the violence of the explosions and because there were so many foreigners.
Some 90 people are still in hospital.
A page has been set up on the collaborative website Trello, external to identify those killed, missing and injured. A Facebook page, external has also been set up.
Adelma Tapia Ruiz
The first fatality to be confirmed was that of 37-year-old Peruvian Adelma Tapia Ruiz. Ms Tapia was killed at the airport, where she was with her Belgian husband, Christophe Delcambe, and their twin four-year-old daughters Maureen and Alondra, who all survived.
Ms Tapia's brother, Fernando Tapia Coral, said in an interview that Mr Delcambe followed his daughters outside the gate area shortly before the explosion and could not find his wife after the blast.
Mr Delcambe was reportedly injured while Maureen had shrapnel wounds in one arm. Alondra was not injured, reports said.
Brother of first named victim: "My sister had planned to come back to Peru"
Writing on Facebook, Mr Tapia called his sister's death "incomprehensible".
"It is very complicated to describe this pain that we are feeling at home, but as the older brother, I know I have to try.
"It is more difficult still to understand the way that destiny has snatched the life of a loved one, but even more incomprehensible is not being able to be close to her in this family tragedy that today knocked on the doors of my family. Early this morning in the Brussels airport, my sister Adelma Tapia died in the terrorist attack, unable to survive this jihadist attack that we'll never understand."
He said his sister was due to catch a flight to New York where she was meeting their sisters, and had planned to return to Peru this year before setting up a Peruvian restaurant in Brussels.
Leopold Hecht
Leopold Hecht, a Belgian national aged 20, studied law at the Universite Saint-Louis in Brussels. He was killed in the attack on Maelbeek metro in which 19 others died.
His family has decided to donate his organs.
"We know it's the decision he would have wanted us to take," the family told La Libre Belgique newspaper.
"There are no words to describe our distress," university rector Pierre Jadoul told the AFP news agency.
Naji Masri, a student in the same year as Mr Hecht at the university, told AFP: "He was a good student, always in the front row."
David Dixon
David Dixon and his partner have a son, who will turn seven on Sunday
On Friday, British national David Dixon, 50, was confirmed to have died in the metro blast.
A computer programmer from Nottingham, he had texted his aunt saying he was safe after the two airport blasts, but was then caught up in the metro attack.
His family said they had received "the most terrible and devastating news about our beloved David".
British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "I am deeply saddened to hear David Dixon was killed in the Brussels attacks. My thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family."
Louba Lafquiri
Ms Lafquiri, 34, described as a Belgian-Moroccan mother of three, was a physical education teacher at La Vertu Islamic school in Brussels. She took the metro to work every morning but on the day of the attacks she never arrived.
Her death at Maelbeek metro station was announced by her family several days after the bombing. Colleagues at the school described her as a popular and energetic teacher.
Andre Adam
Mr Adam, a 79-year-old retired diplomat, was killed at Brussels airport. His wife, Danielle Adam, survived the attack. Andre Adam served as Belgium's ambassador to the US in the 1990s. He had also held diplomatic posts in the UK, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Algeria. He finished his career as Belgian permanent representative at the United Nations.
On Facebook, external, Gigi Adam said her father died "protecting our mother". The couple lived in south-west France, in the town of Larresingle. They were on their way to Miami when they were caught up in the attack.
Alexander and Sascha Pinczowski
Dutch national Sascha Pinczowski was killed in the attacks along with her brother
Brother and sister Alexander and Sascha Pinczowski were killed in the airport attack. They were travelling to New York to celebrate the birthday of Mr Pinczowski's wife, Cameron Cain, and to see friends.
The siblings, aged 29 and 26, were Dutch citizens who had had an international upbringing because of their father's work. They had both attended college in New York.
Ms Cain told the BBC that her husband had once said to her that "you can't live your life in fear of a terrorist attack, because living in fear is how they win".
The Pinczowski and Cain families have set up a scholarship fund in Alexander's memory at Nasa's Space Camp, external to reflect his love of space exploration.
Alexander Pinczowski and Cameron Cain had married in 2013
Elita Weah
The 41-year-old, also from the Netherlands, died at the airport. She was on her her way to New York for the funeral of her father-in-law.
Olivier Delespesse
Mr Delespesse, a Belgian civil servant who worked for the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles, was killed in the metro bombing, his employer said.
Patricia Rizzo
The European Research Council employee was among the victims of the metro bombing, Italy's foreign ministry said, external. She was born in Belgium, but her family is originally from Sicily. She is survived by a son and her parents.
Jennifer Scintu Waetzmann
A coach for a youth handball club in Germany, Jennifer Waetzmann was travelling to New York with her husband for a belated honeymoon when the airport attack occurred, her uncle told German newspaper Bild. She was killed in the blast, while her husband, Lars Waetzmann, was wounded.
Justin and Stephanie Shults
The US husband and wife lived in Brussels
Originally reported missing, Justin and Stephanie Shults were confirmed on Saturday to have died in the airport bombings. Stephanie Shults' employer, Mars, said on Facebook, external that her family had confirmed their deaths. Justin was from the US state of Tennessee and Stephanie was from Kentucky. The couple had studied together at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management.
They had accompanied Stephanie's mother to the airport and were watching her go through security checks when the explosions occurred, a family member said.
Bart Migom
Bart Migom (right) with his girlfriend Emily Eisenman
The 21-year-old Belgian student was travelling to the United States to visit his girlfriend in the state of Georgia. His family said "he died immediately" when bombs went off at the airport, his university in Bruges told AFP. His girlfriend, Emily Eisenman, also 21, said the last she heard from him was a text message sent from a train on the way to the airport.
Frank Deng
The 24-year-old Chinese national was killed at the airport while waiting for a flight to Ljubljana, a friend reported on Facebook, external, citing the Chinese embassy in Brussels. Chinese officials had earlier said a man identified only as Mr Deng had been killed in the attacks.
Fabienne Vansteenkiste
Fabienne Vansteenkiste had just finished her shift at the airport when the bombers struck
The 51-year-old Belgian woman was a baggage handler at Zaventem airport, who had just finished her shift when the two bombs exploded. Media reports said she was a grandmother of two young children. Her relatives have confirmed her death.
Lauriane Visart
The 27-year-old Belgian woman was in the metro at the time of the bombing. She was the daughter of Michel Visart, a journalist with public broadcaster RTBF.
Her father said: "Lauriane had values that were extremely strong, which she defended with great passion, such values as fairness, justice, tolerance and gender equality".
Sabrina Fazal
A 24-year-old nursing student, killed in the Maelbeek metro bombing. Boyfriend Jonathan Selemani confirmed her death five days after the attacks. Mr Selemani said she was proud of her Congolese roots and was a loving mother to their one-year-old son. He said the couple had planned to marry.
It was reported that she had once been a correspondent for a website for members of the Congolese diaspora.
Nic Coopman
The 49-year-old was described as a controls specialist who worked on electrical and automation projects for the Kansas-based company Wenger manufacturing in their Belgian office.
Colleagues said he was waiting for a flight to Zurich at the time of the airport bombings.
Raghavendran Ganeshan
The 31-year-old Indian national was travelling in the same train carriage as the metro station suicide bomber, the Indian foreign minister tweeted, external.
He had been working in Brussels for four years and was an employee of Indian software firm Infosys. Indian media reported he had recently become a father.
Melanie Defize
A music producer and violinist, Ms Defize, 29, died in the metro attack. She also worked for a website covering opera, external and her colleagues posted a tribute, external on Facebook describing their "infinite sadness" at her death. They described her as funny and irreverent, and a big fan of Jeff Buckley and Radiohead.
Gilles Laurent
The 46-year-old sound engineer lived in the southern Belgian city of Namur and is now confirmed to have died on the subway train.
He had worked on films around the world, including Mexican director Carlos Reygadas' Cannes Film Festival entry Post Tenebras Lux and Argentinean drama The Tango Singer, reported Associated Press.
He is survived by his wife Reiko Udo and daughters Suzu and Lili.
Janina Panasewicz
The Polish woman, reported to be 61 years old, was listed as missing but is now believed to have died in the metro bombing.
She was identified by a Polish organisation in Brussels after the Polish foreign ministry confirmed a Polish woman had been a victim of the metro bombing.
The ministry declined to give more details, citing concern for her family.
Aline Bastin
The 29-year-old communications manager from Belgium was on the Maelbeek subway train. She was listed as missing as her family tried desperately to trace her - but three days after the attack, they confirmed her death.
Aline loved to travel and see the world, her family says.
Her death was marked by a notice, external on the website of the company for which she worked, lamenting their "deep sadness".
Johanna Atlegrim
The 30-year-old illustrator and textile designer, now confirmed to have died in the subway blast.
She had produced covers for children's magazines as well as other publications.
Originally from Umea in northern Sweden, she had fallen in love with Brussels, and was quoted by a cultural magazine as saying: "The people are very nice, very mellow for inhabitants of a big city. Brussels is a city teeming with life, but in a somewhat hidden, underground way. And that is precisely what gives the city its unique charm."
Yves Cibuabua
Yves Cibuabua, a Congolese business school graduate living in Brussels, died in the subway bombing.
Yves had worked his way up from being a cleaner and check-out operator to working in financial securities, say reports. He spoke four languages.
He leaves behind his wife, Larissa, and two young daughters.
Other reported fatalities or people missing:
Dinko Malnar, Croatian, in transit between Montreal and Zagreb
Berit Viktorsson, Adeoba Moyo, Tito Garcia Ramone, and a man named only as Gevaert, nationalities unknown, all reported to be missing
Sources: Trello.com, Belgian media
The wounded
Scores of people were wounded in the attacks including a woman photographed while sitting bloodied and dazed with a leg stretched across a seat at Brussels's Zaventem airport moments after the suicide bomb attack on Tuesday.
The plight of Nidhi Chaphekar made front page news
On Wednesday, the woman, whose photograph has become the most haunting image of the attacks, was identified as an airline worker from India. Her family in the city of Mumbai have named her as Nidhi Chaphekar, a 40-year-old Jet Airways flight attendant and a mother of two.
Her family say that after an internet search they have now discovered that she is alive and recovering in hospital. Jet Airways say that Amit Motwani, another employee hurt in the airport blasts is also recovering.
Sebastien Bellin, a Brazilian-born father of two and basketball player with the Belgian national team, was among the wounded. He was pictured lying on the airport floor with blood pooled around his leg.
The blast threw him 2m (6ft) into the air and left shrapnel in his left leg and right hip, his father, Jean Bellin, said.
Four Mormon missionaries were also injured by a blast at the airport, their church said, three seriously. One, Mason Wells, 19, was reportedly only one block away from the Boston bombing in 2013, and was in Paris during the gun and bomb attacks there in November.
Two other missionaries, Richard Norby, 66, and Joseph Empey, 20, from Utah were seriously injured, officials from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints said. A fourth, Fanny Clain, suffered minor injuries.
Mason Wells (L) and Joseph Empey (R) were wounded by the airport blast
Mr Wells' father, Chad Wells, said he woke up to see the news on TV, before calling the church's mission president in France and finding out his son was injured but alive.
"I'm completely shocked by the news. It's the kind of thing as a parent you never, ever want to wake up to," he said.
"Hopefully he's run his lifelong odds and we're done. I think it will make him a stronger person ... Maybe the Boston experience was there to help him get through this experience."
