'Eagles of Death Metal' Crew Member Killed in Paris Terrorist Attack

A Palm Desert rock band that was onstage during the terror attacks in Paris that killed more than 120 people will return home, cutting their European tour short, it was reported Saturday.

One of the band’s crew members, Nick Alexander, 36, of Colchester, Essex in England was confirmed dead Saturday.

“The group is going to return,” an unnamed representative with French concert promoter Nous Productions told Agence France-Presse today.

Eagles of Death Metal was set to tour the continent through Dec. 10 with their final show in Lisbon, Portugal.

The band was the headliner for the sold-out show at the Le Bataclan theater Friday night and was about halfway through its set when the attacks took place.

Alexander was selling merchandise for Eagles of Death Metal, according to a Twitter post from his girlfriend, Polina Buckley.

Alexander’s family released a statement regarding his death, stating “It is with huge sorrow that we can confirm that our beloved Nick lost his life at the Bataclan last night. Nick was not just our brother, son, and uncle. He was everyone’s best friend -- generous, funny and fiercely loyal.”

The only official statement from the band’s representatives was posted Friday on both its Twitter and Facebook pages, suggesting that some band and crew members may have been unaccounted for.

The statement read, “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.”

However, Ian Hughes, the brother of Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes, confirmed to Palm Desert Patch that Hughes and his bandmates were safe.

“Jesse Hughes is ok,” Ian Hughes elaborated in a Facebook post Friday night. “I spoke to him about an hour ago. The band is ok too... As the situation is still developing, I can not say much else.”

Saturday morning, Hughes’ mother, JoEllen Hill-Hughes, also posted on Facebook, stating that Hughes and the band were safe.

“Thank you for all your prayers, your love, all the precious words and I am grateful that my son and his band mates are safe but I sit here and cry, I mourn with the mothers and fathers, their families, of all those that lost loved ones,” her post read.

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Another bandmate’s brother, told ABC News that his brother and his bandmates were able to escape, and described what Julian Dorio had told him about how they did it.

The band was about six songs into its set when machine gun fire erupted, punctuated by screaming and yelling, according to Dorio.

“He said they were mid-set ... and they heard the gunfire and couldn’t really see because of the lights and quickly all kind of hit the deck on the stage and instinctually just ran to the back of the stage, through the exit doors, and took off running.

“They were probably one of the first group of people to be able to exit being that they were on a stage with ... exit doors right behind them so they could just literally turn around, go down and leave,” he said.

The drummer’s mother told the Washington Post that her son called his wife from a police station.

“It was awful,” Mary Lou Dorio told the newspaper.

French officials have reported 129 killed and 352 injured in the attacks that occurred at six locations throughout Paris on Friday night.

The Islamist extremist group ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Eagles of Death Metal was formed in the Coachella Valley in 1998 by Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme of the platinum-selling band Queens of the Stone Age. Homme was not part of the quintet touring European cities in support of the CD, “Zipper Down.”

— City News Service contributed to this report.