UPDATE: A U.S. official briefed by the Justice Department is now telling The Associated Press that all members of the band are safe. There may be crew members still unaccounted for.
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One person affiliated with the American rock band performing Friday night at the Paris venue where police officials say around 100 hostages were taken and killed during a flurry of violence around the French capital was among the dead, NBC News reports.
The Eagles of Death Metal, from Palm Desert in California, was performing at Le Bataclan, a club in the city’s 11th Arrondissement when the attack happened. The band said in a statement on its Facebook page at about 6:45 p.m. EST: "We are still currently trying to determine the safety and whereabouts of all our band and crew. Our thoughts are with all of the people involved in this tragic situation."
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Posted by Eagles Of Death Metal on Friday, November 13, 2015
NBC News has confirmed that one person affiliated with the band has been killed, according to a source close to the band. It's not confirmed whether the person is a band member or a crew member, but the wife of the drummer earlier told NBC News she briefly spoke to her husband and said the band was all OK.
The band was on stage at the packed nightclub when gunmen stormed in and held hundreds hostages for hours, NBC News reported.
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When Paris security forces ended their assault on the concert hall at about midnight local time, killing at least two attackers, at least 100 people were found killed inside the venue, the Associated Press reported. One official described "carnage" inside the building, saying the attackers had tossed explosives at the hostages.
The venue holds about 1,500 people and the concert was sold out.
The Eagles of Death Metal recently played two shows in New York City, one at the Bowery Ballroom at Sept. 16 and another at Saint Vitus in Brooklyn on Sept. 17.
The owner of the Bowery Ballroom, Michael Swier, said in an email to NBC 4 New York, "We are all stunned by the developing news we are getting about the attacks in Paris. Our thought and concerns are with all involved of course, but the fact that the band itself has been swept up in these awful events bring it so close to home; flashbacks of 9/11 come fairly vividly."
He said he's praying the band comes home safe and sound.
Emily Hall Dorio, the wife of drummer Julian Dorio, told NBC News earlier that she briefly spoke to her husband and said all the members of the band were safe at the police station. She thinks there are other crew members still unaccounted for but those on stage managed to get away.
"I'm grateful and heartbroken at the same time," Dorio told NBC News. "I'm grateful he's alive."
Hours before the show, the band's bassist, Matt McJunkins tweeted a photo of the stage.
The band includes Josh Homme, also a member of bands Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss. He was not on tour with them in Paris, and when NBC News reached him by phone in Palm Desert, California, he refused to comment.
Homme — the frontman and founder of Queens of the Stone Age — formed Eagles of Death Metal with his best friend, Jesse Hughes. Though their name is Eagles of Death Metal, the band's sound is a mix of blues rock and garage rock.
Their website lists about two dozen dates planned for the year, including stops in Munich, Stockholm, Rome and Barcelona.
The massacre at Le Bataclan was among a series of deadly attacks across Paris Friday night in which dozens were killed and many more hurt.
French President Francois Hollande ordered the country's borders shut, and police told people not to leave their homes.
"It's a horror," Hollande told his nation in a televised address, declaring a state of emergency.
