'Britain at its best': Camilla praises medical staff and public who rushed to help London Bridge terror victims

Royal London Hospital: The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall (second right) visit terror victims
PA

The actions of medical staff and volunteers in response to the London Bridge terror attack showed “Britain at its best”, the Duchess of Cornwall said.

Camilla’s comments came as she and Prince Charles visited the Royal London Hospital, where 12 injured victims were rushed to after Saturday night’s attack.

Staff told the royals how passers-by stopped to help as the incident unfolded, at times simply by talking to the victims to keep them conscious.

“It’s Britain at its best isn’t it? Everybody pulls together, there doesn't seem to be any panic,” Camilla said.

Prince Charles spoke to staff who were involved in supporting patients admitted after the terror attack unfolded
PA

"Everybody gets on and does their job,” she continued, adding that the patients were in “the best possible hands.”

It comes the royal pair also met a police officer who tried to save terror victim Christine Archibald’s life as she lay dying on the bridge.

Pc Liam Dolphin of City of London police told of how he gave her cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and later hugged her distraught fiancé Tyler Ferguson after he learnt she had died.

Heartbroken: Christine Archibald, the first named victim of Saturday's attack, with fiance Tyler Ferguson

The heart breaking story emerged as the royal couple made a visit to thank the emergency services for their work during the London terror attack.

Pc Dolphin said that when he arrived he found members of the public trying to help Ms Archibald, a 30-year-old Canadian charity worker who had been hit by the van on the bridge.

“I was giving her CPR,” he said. “I left her when the medics came.”

Staff at the Royal London Hospital during the royals' visit
REUTERS

Later he came across her fiancé Tyler Ferguson among the walking wounded. “I found him on the other end of the bridge,” he said.

“He was quite distressed. He told me she had been pronounced dead. I was just hugging him for a while. He had a bit of a difficult time.”

Among those to meet Camilla and Charles at the Royal London was Dr Chris Lamert and paramedic Tracy Porter, who were called to the north end of the bridge as reports of the horrific attack emerged.

The Duchess of Cornwall speaks to hospital staff
PA

They said they saw victims with stab wounds and those who had been run over by the van.

Speaking afterwards, Dr Lambert said: "In a way we see those kind of injuries every day, but obviously not in such great numbers and in such a sort of intense, emotional scene with so much else going on."

Anaesthetic nurse Natalie Poole told of how when responding to the attack she walked the remaining two miles to the hospital after getting a taxi from her home in south London.

The Prince of Wales told the 34-year-old and her co-workers: “I have so much admiration for all you are doing, it's a fantastic team."

Front Pages for London Bridge and Borough Market terrorist attack

1/9

Ms Poole, from Durham, and her colleagues said six patients were taken into surgery in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

Among the patients visited by Charles and Camilla was Sunday Express business editor Geoff Ho, who was stabbed in the neck.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Ho released a statement telling of how he was injured while trying to protect a friend from the terrorists.

Three attackers drove a van into pedestrians on the bridge before going on a knife rampage in Borough Market just after 10pm on Saturday night. Seven were killed in the atrocity, and several others were seriously injured.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in