Vancouverite in Nice, France, describes 'eerie' scene post-attack

After spending the night walking down deserted streets in Nice, aVancouver-based travel journalistis reflecting on the terrible and"eerie"scene in the city after it was attacked.

"It's bizarre to bein such a beautiful place, aresort town ...the day before I was at the beach right beneath where it happened," MarkSissonssaid on the phone from Nice."Just terrible."

The journalistwas about to head to dinner in the southern French citywhen alarge truckplowed through revellersgathered for Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, killing at least 84 people.

He says hedidn't witness the attack but saw the mayhem as people fled the scene and hundreds of police warned others to stay indoors.

"The promenade was cleared of any pedestrians and there were tens of thousands of people down there," he said.

Sissons said he and two companionswent back to their hotel for about an hour before they walked topolicebarricades about a kilometre away from the attack site.

"It was spooky,it was completely empty of people."

By then, he says itwas about 1:30 am local time so he thought if they headed to thecentre of town, it'd be busier, but it was aasimilar scene.

"It was eerie, there was absolutely nobody on the street," he said. "Other than soldiers and police downtown Nice was completely empty."

Stopped by police

Because they were the only civiliansaround, Sissons said police stopped them.

He says they were toldto put their hands up, approach slowly, and then police approached to frisk them.

Today, Sissons says barricades and a heavy police presence remainon the promenade, butthe city has largely come "back to life"despite overwhelmingsadness,

"The French are rolling with it they're trying to get back to life.It's impressive."

However, he says he has heardtalk about whatsecurity measures could have been undertakento prevent an attack like this one.

With files from Charlie Cho