Woman on holiday fell into Thames... and lived
A ROMANANIAN woman who was rescued from the Thames following the Westminster Bridge attack was on holiday in London to celebrate her fiancé’s birthday.
It is not known whether Andreea Cristea fell or jumped but initial reports suggested that she leapt into the water to escape the terrorist.
A pleasure boat captain went to the rescue of the Romanian architect, 29, after colleagues on the bridge alerted him.
She was floating face-down when they got to her and was taken to hospital where she was in a serious condition last night.
Her Romanian fiancé, engineer Andrei Burnaz, who has his birthday today, was taken to hospital with a fractured foot.
The staff on the City Cruises boat could not get her out of the water but a nearby fire service boat came to her rescue.
‘They tried to fish her out with a pole but she was not responding. Then a rescue boat came and took her out,’ a witness told The Sun.
The captain stopped the boat and held her out of the water to stop her being carried away by the current before emergency services took over, a City Cruises spokesman said.
The Port of London Authority said yesterday that a woman was recovered from the river, injured but alive.
It is believed Ms Cristea is being treated at St Thomas’ Hospital while Mr Burnaz was discharged from King’s yesterday.
She is suffering problems with her lungs and had a blood clot removed from her brain overnight, according to the Romanian ambassador.
The couple were due to meet a friend, retired surveyor Patrick Tracey, 64, from Derby, at the London Eye.
Mr Tracey said: ‘I realised that my friends were over at Westminster Abbey coming to meet me and I got a telephone call from him. But I couldn’t hear anything because of the din... that was when he said he had lost Andreea.’ Paul Ciocoiu, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Romania, said: ‘According to information we have, she would be the pedestrian hit by a car and thrown into the Thames and then recovered. The ministry contacted the family.’