A young woman dubbed the Angel Of London Bridge was stabbed in the head when she rushed to the aid of another victim after telling her friends: “I’m a nurse. I have to go and help”, an inquest has heard.
Australian Kirsty Boden, 28, had rushed in after Boro Bistro waiter Alexandre Pigeard, 26, was knifed on the evening of June 3 2017.
She was caught on mobile phone footage bending over the stricken Frenchman on the ground when she was set upon by all three knifemen.
The Old Bailey heard how Khuram Butt, 27, appeared to make a stabbing motion before Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, also moved in.
The tip of Butt’s 12-in pink ceramic blade was later found embedded in Ms Boden’s head.
CCTV footage showed her clearly injured as she fled the carnage before she collapsed.
Ms Boden had been dining in the restaurant with two friends, Harriet Mooney and Melanie Schroeder, when the attackers’ van crashed into railings above.
In a statement read to court, Ms Schroeder said: “Kirsty jumped up and said ‘I’m a nurse. I have to go and help. I need to see if they need help’.”
“Kirsty headed off and I thought nothing of it.
“The next thing I remember was hearing screaming and thinking to myself ‘calm the f*** down it’s just a crash’.
“Harriet was saying we needed to leave, we needed to go.
“I was saying we can’t, we need to wait for Kirsty.”
Ms Schroeder said they ran away with other diners and she came across Ms Boden’s body on the ground as she returned.
She said: “As I was walking back to the Boro Bistro I saw Kirsty lying on the corner.
“I screamed ‘Kirsty’ and ran down the alleyway.”
Ms Boden had suffered stab wounds and was alive but unable to speak, she said.
Ms Schroeder helped with first aid along with a GP who gave chest compressions before saying she was gone and there was nothing more they could do. The court heard.
Witness Alexandre Colou looked over his shoulder and saw Ms Boden falling down as crowds of people fled the attackers.
He told the court he thought she had tripped before he saw “blood everywhere”.
He said: “Her eyes were moving wildly.
“She had difficulties breathing. I was talking to her and then her eyes stopped moving.
“I said ‘stay awake, stay awake, stay with me’.”
Gareth Patterson QC, for her family, said Ms Boden got up within seconds of the crash, thinking of others rather than her own safety.
The senior Guy’s Hospital nurse was “right there in the thick of it” when she tried to help Mr Pigeard.
Mr Patterson said the tip of Butt’s knife was found embedded in Ms Boden’s head, most likely from the blow caught on CCTV.
Ms Boden was one of eight people killed when three terrorists mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge and ran amok around Borough Market.
Xavier Thomas, 45, Christine Archibald, 30, Mr Pigeard, 26, Sara Zelenak, 21, Ms Boden, 28, Sebastien Belanger, 36, James McMullan, 32, and Ignacio Echeverria, 39 all died in the atrocity.
Their attackers were shot dead near Borough Market in less than 10 minutes.
