Your Take: Canadian student blocks away from Oslo explosion

Philip Jones is a political science student at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S. He is studying in Oslo for six weeks this summer.

Oslo is usually a quiet city where a siren is heard distinctly. When I saw the number of ambulances streaming into downtown Oslo my friends and I knew something was wrong.

I asked a man on the street what had happened and he told me that a bomb had gone off by the Labour Party Headquarters, three blocks away. My friend and I turned in the direction of the mass crowds and decided to investigate a bit more in depth.

We walked over five blocks -- not a single street was free from broken glass and puzzled people. We continued to walk but eventually decided to turn around once the police tape had spread out too far for us to see anything.

On our way back, my friend and I found a group of people standing in a bar with a blown-out window. I climbed into the former window frame and, along with about 40 other people, saw the footage for the first time.

The Labour Party Headquarters was a wreck with emergency crews all around. I asked a couple of people if they knew more information but they knew as much as I did. We were all in shock.

Once I got back to the apartment on Rosteds Gate my friends and I turned on the news. We watched in absolute horror as news of the shootings began to break. Some of us speculated if they were connected and eventually we found out they were. On Saturday, I followed the news intently and learned more than I thought possible: the unthinkable had become reality.


(Submitted by Philip Jones)

Tonight, Sunday, I went down to the growing mountain of flowers to pay my respects. As I took time to reflect on the past three days, I saw the people of Oslo comforting one another the way I assume Canadians would. It's something words cannot explain (maybe the photos will).

My respect for this small country has grown exponentially and I know this weekend will never leave my memory. Oslo is in all of our hearts.