Quebecers recount Bastille Day horror

Laurie Jones flew from Montreal to Nice on Thursday, arriving just in timefor the city'sBastille Dayfireworks,whichlight up the 19th-century promenade that snakes its way alongthe Mediterranean Sea.

As the fireworks display came to an end,Jones began walking away from thecrowds that had gathered by the seaside.

• Truckplows into Bastille Day crowd in Nice, France, at least 84dead
• 'Shocked and dismayed': Quebec leaders react to attack in Nice

She was checkingher phone, when aloud noisemade her look up. That's when she saw a large truck plowing through the mass of people, tossing bodies about with horrific ease.

"People were flying in the air.It was really, reallya horrible sight," Jones told CBC MontrealDaybreak. "The truck passed and I saw bodies on the road. They looked like rag dolls."

Jones crossed the median to offer help tothose left in the truck's wake. But then, behind her, gunshots began to ring out.

She ducked into the posh Le Royal Hotel, where she took cover. Several metres down the road, French police were exchanging gunfire with the truck driver.

The shoot out brought an end to the rampage. But not before 84 people were killed, and more than 50 others were seriously injured.

Jones compared the scene to a horror movie.

"It was a killer truck," she said."It was just there to kill people."

• Bastille Day celebrations were a 'family event,' says Canadian in Nice

'Screaming and gunshots'

Another Quebecer,Jean-FrancoisDussault-Turcotte,was in a restaurant off the Promenade desAnglaiswhen a truck began its two-kilometre onslaught along the waterfront promenade.

"We heard screaming and gunshots," Dussault-Turcotte said."People jumped onto the beach to save themselves."

Hestayed in the restaurant for an hour before police lead him to thenearby HotelNegrescowith about 500 other people.

Hotel personnel took care of the traumatized attack survivorsby offering them water, blankets and pillows. They waited for a few more hours before police let them leave through the back exit of the hotel.

"Crossing the street we saw the crime scene about fifteen bodies to the left and right covered in blankets,"Dussault-Turcottesaid.

• Silence, grief loom over scene of deadly attack in Nice

Frenchexpatsin Montreal

On Thursday evening in Montreal,French expatshadgathered at the French Union on Viger Avenue to celebrate their country's national holiday.

Organizers interrupted aconcert to inform revelers of the tragedy, and then paid tribute to the victims with a minute of silence.

That was followed by a rendition of theLa Marseillaise, the French national anthem.

"Sadness. That's really the first word that comes to mind,"saidAlexandreL'Hour, a student at the University of Montreal who has lived in Quebecfor four years.

ExpatHenriChebeirsaid he was overwhelmed to hear about what happened.

"I've been in Canada for ten years now, and it's still very affecting to hear this kind of news. I don't know what else to say," he said.

"To know that my country is touched by this enormous sadness, it's terrible, with all that happened in Paris," said AntoinetteMartin-Baeucker, adding that she had never seen such a violent disturbance in her country before.

• What Quebecers need to know following the Nice attack