TWO PENARTH men have spoken of their shock after they narrowly missed the terrorist attacks in Paris last weekend.

Ceri Davies and Anthony Pickles both said they were left in a 'state of shock' after a 'terrifying night' in the besieged city.

Last Friday night they were out in separate areas of the city - but each was only minutes away from the horrifying attacks that left 129 people dead.

Anthony Pickles, from Penarth, was eating with friends at a restaurant in Le Marais when 'everybody started to leave in a hurry', he said.

He became aware through social media that deadly shootings had began - one, just hundreds of yards from where they were dining.

Speaking to the Penarth Times Mr Pickles, who works in external affairs for Nissan Europe, described the fear across central Paris with 'tourists in tears, lost and looking for directions'.

He said: “We went out for a late dinner with friends in the 11e arrondissement and I started to receive texts from friends asking if I was safe.

“When I started to look at twitter, I could see the hostage location and the indiscriminate shootings were only around 600 yards from where we were sitting.”

After sprinting back to an apartment the group were staying in a mile away, Mr Pickles waited with friends as an 'eerie silence' spread over Paris.

Ceri Davies, a teacher who has lived in Paris for nine years but is originally from Penarth, said he was in a pub near the Stade de France when the explosions and shootings began.

Mr Davies said he was watching the Wales football match against Holland with friends at The Thistle, a Scottish bar, before he was alerted by his wife Carole that there was a terrorist attack just one mile away from him.

He said: “When the news broke about the terrorist attack the pub management pulled down the shutters of the premises to protect everyone that was inside at the time.

“It was a very surreal moment and there was a parent inside the pub with me who had a child in a pushchair so that must have been an incredibly harrowing time for them.”

Mr Pickles said shots were fired as they made their way home to safety, just moments after they had been in the area.

“As we continued back, people were still sitting outside bars and restaurants oblivious to what was happening just streets away," he added.

“But the closer we got to the apartment, the more and more we saw people beginning to hear and starting to panic with people running and police vans driving in all directions.

“Within 30 minutes the streets outside were empty and all I could hear was sirens.”

When the group got inside the apartment, they turned off all the lights and sat on phones reading updates on Twitter “in complete shock and horror", Mr Pickles added.

“None of us slept and the next day, I went outside and the streets were deserted," he said.

“The city was in complete shock.”

Forty two-year-old Mr Davies said that he is now cautious when travelling around the city meanwhile, but has not been put off by the attacks.

“There is a sense of resilience among people in the city and the outlook here is that residents that live here do not want to show that they are afraid,” he added.

Anyone who is worried about relatives or friends in Paris should contact the British Embassy on 0033144513100.