New Yorker visiting Paris describes being nearby during attacks

PARIS (WABC) -- Eyewitness News is hearing from one New Yorker who was in Paris when the attacks unfolded - now preparing to head home.

David Chitel and his wife Christine were having dinner about a mile and a half away from the Bataclan Concert Hall when the first learned of the attacks.

"At first we weren't concerned because we weren't in the middle of exactly what was happening," David says, "When we asked people at the restaurant, they said 'yeah we've heard of some incident', but in a very short period of time, we started to get a lot of firsthand information from people who were watching it on the news."

David says it all went from being unnerving to surreal, to then a little bit scary.

David and Christine were in Paris to celebrate his birthday, and to attend a U2 concert that was cancelled after the attacks. They are scheduled to fly home to New York later, but insist the attacks will not keep them from visiting Paris again.

READ: U2 shocked by deadly Paris attacks, cancels concert