Eagles Of Death Metal Describe Harrowing Escape During Paris Terror Attack

The band members spoke about coming face to face with the gunmen, holing up in a room in the Paris theater, and their escape from the horrific terror attack.

Members of the California rock band Eagles of Death Metal opened up for the first time this week about the carnage and horror that ensued when ISIS terrorists attacked their Nov. 13 concert in Paris, killing 89 people.

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The band spoke with Vice in a video that was released Wednesday. All the members of the band survived, though Nick Alexander, the band's merchandise manager, was killed in the assault.

The attack at the Bataclan was one of several attacks in and around Paris that day that ultimately left 130 people dead.

Bassist Matt McJunkins described fleeing into a room in the theater and taking cover with a group of other people, some of whom had been shot during the attack.

McJunkins recalled trying to decide if he should run across the stage to escape the attack, or take cover in the room. He chose the room, and once inside he and others "started grabbing chairs to barricade the door."

In a mini fridge, McJunkins said the group of survivors found a bottle of champagne, which they held onto as a potential weapon against the attackers. At the same time, a woman who had been shot in the thigh was bleeding, while friends tried to apply pressure to her wound.

"Her blood was running out on the ground," McJunkins said, adding that the gunfire "went on for 10 or 15 minutes."

"It just didn't stop, and then it would stop and then there was this sense of relief," McJunkins said. "And then it would start up again. And then there was an explosion."

Frontman Jesse Hughes said just after the shooting began he was searching for his girlfriend when he came face to face with one of the shooters.

Hughes said he had just opened a hallway door when he saw the gunman.

"And he turned on me, brought his gun down and the barrel hit the door frame," Hughes said. "I was like, oh fuck."

Other people were following Hughes and he warned them to go another way. The group fled to an exit door, and Hughes eventually found his girlfriend.

Later in the interview, Hughes became emotional as he described feeling guilty about fleeing and leaving other members of the band on stage.

"I didn't want anything to have happened to them and I really need them to have gotten off the stage because I didn't see what happened when we got off," he said.

Sound engineer Shawn London said one of the attackers tried to shoot him, but missed.

"People started dropping to the ground," London said. "Injuries, death."

Then one of the attackers tried to kill London.

"He looked right at me, and he shot at me, and he missed," London said. "And he hit my console, and buttons went flying everywhere."

London dropped to the ground and escaped with several other people by fleeing each time the shooter ran out of bullets and stopped to reload.

Drummer Julian Dorio described hearing the gunshots over the sound of the music, then crawling to safety.

Dorio said the band plays especially loud, but "the initial shots were so powerful for me that I immediately, I knew something was wrong."

As the shooting started, Dorio "bailed" off his drum stool. He said "almost immediately the gunpowder hit my nose."

From there, he saw two men "just relentlessly shooting into the audience," but he managed to crawl behind the band gear and escape.

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