French Flag or Belgian Flag? World Trade Center Defends Color Tribute

New York's World Trade Center was lit black, yellow and red in solidarity with Belgium over the Brussels attacks, a spokesman said Wednesday despite confusion that the lights looked wrong.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that the 408-foot (124-meter) spire on the tallest building in the United States would be lit in the colors of the Belgian flag after dark.

It was to be an especially poignant tribute given the World Trade Center is built on the site of the 9/11 attacks on New York.

But 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.

It sparked remarks on social media from observers, and media speculation that the Trade Center had made a mistake.

"Making lights appear black is always tricky," Steve Coleman, spokesman for the Port Authority, which owns and runs the World Trade Center site, told AFP in an email Wednesday.

"The World Trade Center was initially lit at 10 percent white, which was intended to appear dark grey/black, but was then darkened even more after dusk to make it look more black," he added.

Cuomo on Tuesday posted a picture on twitter of the spire in the correct colors.

An AFP photographer also said the colors appeared correct to the naked eye, but did not translate so accurately to film, saying cameras are sensitive to different color temperatures.

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

Tuesday's bombings at Brussels airport and a metro train killed 31 people and wounded 270. It was Belgium's bloodiest terror assault.