Brussels airport has reopened for three "symbolic" flights amid tight security controls, 12 days after an attack by suicide bombers killed 16 people there.

Three Brussels Airlines flights were scheduled to depart for European destinations, with the first leaving at 11:40 GMT for Faro in Portugal.

Passengers were screened on an approach road and again before check in.

Attacks on the airport and a Brussels metro station by so-called Islamic State on 22 March left 32 people dead.

Airport workers gathered at Zaventem to watch the first flight take off.

The other two flights on Sunday are to Turin in northern Italy and Athens.

A passenger on the Athens flight, Loukas Bassoukos, told Agence France-Presse it was "a bit weird".

"So many people died here. But I think we can overcome this. I think we slowly have to start trusting the security controls," he said.

Airport chief executive Arnaud Feist said: "These flights are the first hopeful sign from an airport that is standing up straight after a cowardly attack."