Karachi deaths shock Cherbourg

CHERBOURG, France -- CNN correspondent Rym Brahimi reports on the reaction of residents in Cherbourg to the apparent suicide bombing in Karachi, Pakistan:

People in Cherbourg have been left shocked and stunned by the deaths of 11 French people in Karachi.

The dead and wounded are either relatives, neighbours, friends or colleagues to many people in the town, and there is a sense of bewilderment over the pointlessness of the bombing -- they can see no justification for it.

Nearly a third of the 30,000 or so people who live here are employed in the defence and construction industry, most of them with the state-run Direction de la Construction Navale (DCN), and there is a great sense of solidarity with those who died and were wounded in the Karachi blast.

Some of the relatives of those wounded in the explosion are travelling to Paris to help them home after they fly back from Karachi.(Full story)

Many people here come and go on the same type of projects those in Pakistan were working on, and realise it could just have easily been them who were caught in the explosion.

One man I met, an 82-year-old former marine worker, was openly crying in the street after hearing the news.

Cherbourg residents are holding a candle-lit vigil in a chapel in the town on Friday, and a remembrance service for the bomb victims will also be held on Sunday.

More than 1,000 people held a minute's silence before a match at the Cherbourg soccer stadium on Wednesday night in memory of the victims.

Crisis centre set up in Cherbourg

A crisis centre has been set up, manned by psychologists giving counseling to those who need it. Some were telling me that they have receiving calls in the middle of the night from some of the relatives of the victims who have been left traumatised and unable to come to terms with what has happened.

There is a stillness in the town -- the streets are very quiet. As May 8 is the VE (Victory in Europe) Day public holiday, that often runs into the weekend, a lot of activity had ceased anyway, but the sense of emptiness has been magnified by the fact many people are mourning in private in their own homes for the victims of the bomb.

A lot of the VE Day ceremonies held on Wednesday blended with the commemoration of those who died in World War II. Flowers have been left around the town, at war memorials and places of remembrance.

The local paper, La Presse de la Manche, which would normally have been closed down over the public holiday period, ran a special edition, saying the event in Pakistan was "a tragedy we all feel concerned about, and it is our duty to inform people of."

The disaster has fuelled further debate and unease in Cherbourg over working for overseas governments.

Many are angry that DCN staff are having to work to equip Pakistan, which they see as a totalitarian state, with military weapons. They feel building defence equipment for domestic use is one thing, but arming other nations as something quite different.

There is a strong sense of pride and duty that these people are building some for the nation, and there is much disquiet that people are having to work on projects that appear far less altruistic.

DCN managers have said all those who went to Karachi did so voluntarily, but union officials say it was made clear to people who go to work in Pakistan that their careers would be boosted by the move, and many of them have been offered more than twice their normal salary to go.

But this also comes against a fear that people could be put out of a job if they did not take up overseas work, as the defence sector has been suffering a downturn.