In the morning rush hour of March 22 last year, 29-year-old Charles Chauvaux was riding the metro to work. When the train arrived at Maelbeek station, a suicide bomb exploded in the carriage next to his.

He escaped, but 16 others died in the attack, which happened a few hundred meters from the headquarters of the European Union.

At the same time, a bomb at Zaventem Airport had claimed the lives of 16 people, including one Chinese.

On Wednesday - the first anniversary of the attacks - Belgian and other European leaders joined the families of the victims to pay tribute to those who were killed. Chauvaux said his memories of the events at the metro station were "horrible".

He said: "I was in the first carriage when the attack happened. The bomb exploded in the second carriage. It was quick."

But, he said, in spite of the attacks, the heart of Europe was still beating strong.

Wednesday's memorial started at Brussels Airport where King Phillipe and Queen Mathilde joined 1,500 people - including survivors and their relatives, rescue workers and airport employees - to pay tribute to the victims.

King Philippe laid a wreath outside the airport's departure hall. The names of the 16 killed in the attack there were read out and at 7:58 am, the moment when the first bomb exploded in the departure hall, all airport activity was halted for a minute's silence.

Just a few steps from Schuman Square in Brussels, a metal sculpture shaped like rising waves was unveiled to honor the victims.

Flags representing the countries of the victims were raised in front of the sculpture, on which white flowers were laid.

One of the flags was that of China, to honor Deng Jingquan, 24, who died in the airport attack. China's Ambassador to Belgium, Qu Xing, attended the memorial.

Allison Trefois, a fifth-grade teacher at the Carolus Magnus School in Brussels, led 14 children from the class to the memorial.

She said: "We try to tell the kids that they should not be afraid in their daily lives. We saw that some of the children were very afraid so we tried to assure them that the military and the police force are doing their best to protect us."

Zheng Jingqiang and Wang Keju contributed to this story

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn