A Canadian woman killed Sunday during a shooting ambush in Jordan is being remembered as a “giving and caring” person by neighbours, who call news of her death an “absolute shock” to their community.

Linda Vatcher, a 62-year-old retired teacher who lived in Corner Brook, N.L., was the sole foreigner among 10 people — the rest being seven Jordanian officers and two civilians — slain after gunmen ambushed Jordanian police in a series of attacks in the southern city of Karak. One such ambush was at a Crusader castle popular with tourists, officials said.

Another 34 people, including Vatcher’s son, were injured in the shooting.

“We’re flabbergasted,” said Vatcher’s neighbour Errol Flynn. “When you see it’s your next door neighbour who you’re looking at every day as you pass by . . . to just look online and see her face and the headlines, it just freaks you right out.

“Especially this time of the year.”

Neighbours say Vatcher, who was born in the small Newfoundland town of Burgeo, had travelled to Jordan to visit her son, Christopher, for Christmas. Christopher Vatcher’s LinkedIn page lists him as a Grade 9 teacher for the Abu Dhabi Grammar School in the United Arab Emirates.

Flynn remembers his neighbour of 23 years as a “lovely person,” whom he would often help with her garden. He last spoke with her while clearing out snow “only a few days ago.”

Another neighbour, Julian Edwards, said he helped clear out Vatcher’s driveway just two days ago, after she returned from a trip to China with her friends.

“My head is still spinning,” Edwards said, calling Vatcher “totally a loving and caring individual” and her death an “absolute shock.

“The sheer fact that something so extreme and so far away has happened is disastrous. I’m sure the entire community will be in shock.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion offered the Canadian government’s condolences to victims’ families.

The attack is one of the bloodiest in Jordan in recent memory, but only the latest of violent incidents that have challenged this pro-Western kingdom’s claim to be an oasis of calm in a region threatened by Islamic extremists.

The killing of a Canadian tourist could further hurt Jordan’s embattled tourism sector, which has declined sharply since Daesh, also known as the Islamic State, seized large parts of neighbouring Syria and Iraq two years ago.

After the attack, the Canadian embassy in Jordan tweeted a warning to Canadians, advising them against all travel to Karak until further notice.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in and near the central town of Karak, about 140 km south of the capital, Amman.

The chain of events began when police received reports of a house fire, said a statement by Jordan’s Public Security Directorate.

The officers responding to the call came under fire from inside the house, the statement said. Two police officers were wounded and the assailants fled in a car, it said.

Several gunmen also opened fire on a police station in Karak Castle, a Crusader fort, wounding members of the security forces. In another attack, gunmen fired on a security patrol, causing no injuries, the statement said.

Jordan faces homegrown extremism, with hundreds of Jordanians fighting alongside other Daesh militants in Iraq and Syria and several thousand more supporting the extremist group in the kingdom. Jordan is a key U.S. ally, and a member of a U.S.-led military coalition fighting Daesh.

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Over the past year, gunmen have carried out several attacks on members of the Jordanian security forces and foreign trainers. Earlier this year, Jordanian security forces engaged in a deadly shootout with suspected Daesh sympathizers in a northern Jordanian town.

In the most recent incident, three U.S. military members were killed in a shooting outside an airbase in southern Jordan in November.

Don Pelletier, a travel agent from Aldpar Travel in Toronto, which specializes in travel to Turkey and Jordan, says that the shootings could mean trouble for what he says is a brilliant tourist destination.

“Jordan is my favourite place in the Middle East,” says Pelletier. “I’ve already had to cancel a lot of tours to Turkey, and now I’m thinking I’m going to have to cancel a lot of tours for Jordan.”

Petellier says that Karak is only an hour and a half away from the nation’s capital, Amman. The proximity means that despite the tourist attractions in the city, Pelletier won’t be trying to convince any uneasy travellers to go ahead with their plans.

“Karak is always on the tours, everybody goes.”

With files from Salmaan Farooqui, The Canadian Press and The Associated Press

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