Members of Montreal's Norwegian community are mourning the mass murder of nearly 100 people in their home country.

One man who was born in Norway but has lived in Quebec for more than 50 years said news of the bombing and shootings in Oslo and at a youth camp on an island near the city are deeply upsetting.

"It shakes me up over here and I am 6,000 kilometres away from there," said Erik Palmen, a retired accountant, who said he follows the news in Norway online daily.

"The scariest part was the guy that went onto the island and shot young people … this is murder, cold-blooded murder."

Palmen works with an amateur Norwegian soccer team in Montreal. He said they will take time to talk about the terror attacks at their next practice.

Scrambled to contact mother

Another member of the Norwegian community, Tonje Persson, said she hasn't stopped talking and thinking about the tragedy since she first heard about it on Friday.

Persson, a Concordia University Ph.D. student who left Norway for Montreal nine years ago, still has friends and family there.

Her mother's safety was her first concern when she heard about the attacks.

"My mother lives in the countryside but I I knew that she'd planned to go to Oslo. So that's what I thought first: 'When is she in Oslo?' She goes around that neighbourhood [where the bombing happened], too."

Persson was relieved to find out her mother is fine.

She said she considered dropping her studies and returning to Norway … but decided to stay in Montreal until December.

Accused expected to speak

The man blamed for twin attacks in Norway that killed 93 people and wounded nearly 100 said he was motivated by a desire to bring about a revolution in Norwegian society, his lawyer said Sunday.

Anders Behring Breivik, 32, has "not denied" the accusations against him and will explain himself in court on Monday, according to his lawyer, Gerr Lippestad.