Canada offers sympathy to victims in France

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted Canada’s support for France.

“Our sympathy is with the victims, and our solidarity with the French people,” he wrote.

Trudeau added in a statement that Canada has offered “all possible assistance to the French government.”

“Senseless acts like this one are not isolated events, and we will continue to work with our Allies and partners to fight terrorism in all of its forms.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion also issued a statement saying Canada condemns this “horrific terrorist attack.”

“We offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed and a speedy recovery to those injured. Canadians are deeply saddened by this tragedy and we stand in solidarity with the people of France on their national day.”

Canada’s ambassador to France, Lawrence Cannon, tweeted early Friday that there are `”no Canadians reported among casualties to date” and thanked French authorities for their co-operation.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark earlier tweeted that the incident is “just horrible” and that she was thinking of “all those involved and their families.”

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said “all Albertans are heartbroken for the families of those killed and injured in tonight’s senseless attack in Nice.”

Federal Opposition leader Rona Ambrose and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair also expressed their shock as did former prime minister Stephen Harper.

“The people of France are in our thoughts this evening, following the terrorist attack. I pray for the victims and their families,” Harper tweeted.

The truck, which was carrying grenades and other weapons, drove on to a sidewalk and plowed through a crowd of Bastille Day revellers who’d gathered to watch fireworks in the French resort city late Thursday.

French officials said in addition to the 84 deaths, dozens more people were wounded.

They said the truck plowed into the crowd over a distance of two kilometres near Nice’s Palais de la Mediterranee, a building that fronts the beach.

Montreal teacher Heloise Landry is visiting the French city and said she narrowly escaped being hit by the truck.

She told The Canadian Press she was watching the Bastille Day festivities when she ducked indoors because of the cool weather, then heard panicked screams and “there was blood everywhere.”

Landry said she has crossed the street where the truck had passed just two minutes earlier.

“I wondered how it was that we were still alive,” she said.

Once the initial shock had passed, Landry said she quickly assure her family that both she and her 16-year-old daughter were unharmed.

Canadian residents were also starting to mark the safe option on Facebook’s “Safety Check.”

Alex Mitchell, who lives in Kingston, Ont., wrote in an email that he and his family are staying in an apartment a few blocks from the scene.

He said they were already back from watching the fireworks when the news broke.

“What Val and I keep thinking about is all the families and children we saw tonight — and there were so many,” he said, referring to his wife. “To think that such a wonderful event could be turned into something so horrible makes us both sick. We’re just not sure what to tell our kids.”

A group of high school students from Nanaimo, B.C., was also reported “safe and accounted for” in posts on Facebook and Twitter by their school district.

Doug White, a councillor with the Snuneymuxw First Nation, wrote on his Facebook page that his niece was on the trip.

“I can’t take the stress — my niece Isabella texted me to tell me she and her friend ran across Nice to get away from the horrible Bastille Day attack in Nice, France to get to the home they are staying at…” he posted. “She is OK and all the kids from Nanaimo that are over there are OK — thank god!”

Another man Aman Cheema simply tweeted the hashtag “Canada” and “Hey guys me and my wife are safe, we were just two blocks away from the attack.”

Images being broadcast across French media showed people running for their lives down Nice’s Promenade des Anglais, the famous seaside boulevard named for the English aristocrats who proposed its construction in the 19th century.

It was not immediately clear who would have been behind the attack, but France has recently seen a spate of dramatic assaults from by jihadist groups, including the Islamic State group.

— By Tamsyn Burgmann in Vancouver, with files from Lori Paris and the Associated Press.

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