Woodford’s Emily King and North Warrnambool footballer Jarryd Lewis were at a cabaret show in south Paris when the attacks happened and had to walk the streets of Paris – flooded with balaclava-clad police – to get back to their accommodation.

The Standard was able to track the couple down in Switzerland late Sunday night  just before they were about to skydive from a helicopter. 

The couple, who are on a Topdeck tour of Europe, were told about the terrorist attacks after the show by their tour guide.

“We actually didn’t know how bad it was. They didn’t really tell us how close it was to us obviously to not freak us out,” Ms King said.

“When we came out of the caberet show there was just people with balaclavas everywhere. It was quite scary.

“We were terrified. We walked out on the street there was people running everywhere, people crying. Taxis, they even stopped, half of them were too scared to drive.

“The amount of ambulances and police. The police wore balaclavas so that made it look even scarier. There was just people everywhere just trying to get home.”

After being told not to take public transport, the couple faced a long wait on a street corner for a taxi.

“We kept ringing the companies, but they were all booked out because everyone wanted to get away, but we finally got one,” Ms King

The taxi drivers were not able to take them all the way to their hostel and they were forced to walk part of the way.

“They didn’t want to go where everything was happening, and the roads were all blocked off anyway.”

Located between where they were and their hotel was the Bataclan theatre where more than 100 people were killed. Their hostel was just 2km from the theatre.

The couple made it safely back to the hostel, which was being guarded by security armed with machine guns.

The hotel was then placed in lockdown and they were unable to leave.

“We were told we had to go straight to our room and reception came around and did head checks,” Ms King said.

“There was so much security. They shut down the nightclub that our hostel had.“

She said everyone was so worried they didn’t sleep and spent the night reading what they could online.

​“We were just lying in our hotel room listening to the sirens and just hoping we could get out the next day.”

The following morning, their tour was scheduled to drive to the Swiss Alps but they were told the borders were closed and wouldn’t be able to leave. 

However, a short time later they were reopened and they were able to leave.

“There were lots of people being searched at the border. We saw car and he had to unpack his groceries, everything from his car. Our bus was lucky and they just let us through.”

The couple are scheduled to return to Paris at the end of their tour.