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

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

"It's bizarre to be in such a beautiful place, a resort town ... the day before I was at the beach right beneath where it happened," Mark Sissons said on the phone from Nice. "Just terrible."

The journalist was about to head to dinner in the southern French city when a large truck plowed through revellers gathered for Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, killing at least 84 people.

He says he didn'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 companions went back to their hotel for about an hour before they walked to police barricades about a kilometre away from the attack site.

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

By then, he says it was about 1:30 am local time so he thought if they headed to the centre of town, it'd be busier, but it was a a similar 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 civilians around, Sissons said police stopped them.

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

Today, Sissons says barricades and a heavy police presence remain on the promenade, but the city has largely come "back to life" despite overwhelming sadness, 

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

However, he says he has heard talk about what security measures could have been undertaken to prevent an attack like this one.

With files from Charlie Cho