Westminster terror attack: CCTV shows final moments of victim Andreea Cristea crossing bridge before being thrown into Thames

Lucia Binding12 September 2018

Shocking CCTV footage of rescue efforts being made after a victim of the Westminster terror attack was thrown into the Thames has been played at an inquest into the deaths of five victims.

Andreea Cristea, 31, had been on holiday in London when Khalid Masood mowed down crowds using a hire car on Westminster Bridge before stabbing a police to death.

As the inquests into the Westminster terror deaths continued on Wednesday, a police video compilation was shown to the court of Ms Cristea’s last moments.

Ms Cristea can be seen walking along the bridge with her boyfriend Andrei Burnaz in the footage taken from a fixed CCTV camera, a bus and a dashboard camera of a passing car.

The footage shows Ms Cristea's last moments
PA

Ms Cristea can be seen walking along the bridge with her boyfriend Andrei Burnaz in the footage taken from a fixed CCTV camera, a bus and a dashboard camera of a passing car.

The clip shows her being thrown into the air and over the side of the bridge into the Thames after she is hit by Masood’s car.

A 999 call was also played from a panicked witness named Michael Brown, who reported a drowning woman in the water.

“There’s a woman in the water drowning,” he can be heard saying during the call.

Andreea Cristea is seen walking on Westminster Bridge moments before the attack
PA

CCTV footage from a boat showed Ms Cristea floating face down in the river before she was retrieved by rescuers using a hooked pole.

It showed a crew member from a Millennium Clipper Cruise Boat running to get a boat hook to rescue Ms Cristea from the water.

He used the pole to move her towards a fire service boat.

Ms Cristea had taken a photo of the London Eye on her mobile phone just moments before she was thrown into the Thames, the inquest heard.

Gareth Patterson QC, for the family, suggested people in the area had taken photographs of the tragic scene.

Detective Constable Simon Osland said: “It’s quite common. Anything like this, people use their phones to take pictures and video in all sorts of emergencies.”

The inquest is due to hear from her boyfriend, Mr Burnaz, on Thursday.

On Monday, an inquest heard that Masood deliberately targeted the four people on Westminster Bridge before fatally stabbing PC Keith Palmer at the gates of Parliament.

Mr Patterson QC said it appeared people were being hit like "human bowling pins" and "thrown in the air like rag dolls".

He added that witnesses described "the noise and the repeated thuds and bangs of the impact".

Masood was shot dead by an armed police officer at the scene, with police later treating the attack as “Islamist-related terrorism”.

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