The US rock band Eagles of Death Metal has been caught up in a terror attack at the Paris concert hall where they had begun to perform.
The Bataclan music hall was one of several entertainment sites around Paris targeted by gunmen and bombers who killed scores of people on Friday in what President Francois Hollande described as an unprecedented terrorist assault.
Early indications were that members of the band, which also goes by the acronym EODM, were all safe. The group was formed in the late 1990s by lifelong friends Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme, the group's only two permanent members.
Hughes' mother, Jo Ellen Hughes, told a Reuters correspondent outside her home in Palm Desert, California, that she had spoken to her son by telephone and that he was unhurt but "very upset and shaken."
"From my understanding, I think the whole band's been accounted for," she said, adding that she was not sure about the whereabouts or wellbeing of the rest of the entourage because the band and crew became separated in the pandemonium.
Hughes' mother also said she believed the band had just gone on stage when the attack began, but she had no other details, except that the musicians were taken into protective custody at a police station afterward. A person close to the band confirmed that the group was onstage performing when the deadly assault began.
The group's US-based publicist, Jennifer Ballantyne of Universal Music Enterprises, told Reuters by email that Homme was not in Paris with the band on Friday. His absence was not unusual as Homme is known for sitting out many of the group's live shows due to multiple commitments to other projects,
Ballantyne said another EODM member, guitarist-vocalist Eden Galindo, was reportedly safe and not inside the venue, citing a Facebook post by yet another associate that said: "Hey everyone. I just spoke with Eden. He is fine."
According to early reports, the Bataclan was believed to have been attacked by two or three gunmen, who were said to have shouted slogans condemning France's role in Syria as they went through the concert hall shooting people.
