I’m a nurse ... I have to go and help
‘Angel of London Bridge’ rushed TOWARDS victims’ screams – but was knifed to death by terrorists
‘Stay awake... stay with me’
A NURSE was stabbed to death by three terrorists after telling friends ‘I have to go and help’, an inquest heard yesterday.
Kirsty Boden, dubbed the Angel of London Bridge, was excitedly chatting to friends in a restaurant about being a bridesmaid when the knifewielding fanatics launched their rampage.
As soon as she heard screams and as others fled, the off- duty nurse immediately went towards danger. The 28-year-old bent down to help French waiter Alexandre Pigeard, who had been stabbed in the neck and the stomach.
But Miss Boden, a senior staff nurse at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, was targeted by the three jihadis and repeatedly stabbed. The tip of a 12in ceramic kitchen knife used by ringleader Khuram Butt was later found embedded in her head.
Melanie Schroeder, who was dining with Miss Boden, told the Old Bailey that her friend rushed to help after hearing a crash above them in June 2017. She 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.’
Footage of Miss Boden getting up from her dinner with friends to was played to the courtroom.
After it became clear it was a terrorist attack, Miss Schroeder and another friend Harriet Mooney started to run away with other screaming diners but they quickly returned to look for Miss Boden. They found their friend lying in a pool of blood. She was still alive but unable to talk.
‘I saw Kirsty lying in the corner,’ Miss Schroeder said. ‘I recognised the person lying on the floor as Kirsty because of her bright pink cardigan. I screamed “Kirsty” and ran down the alleyway.
‘I was saying, “No, no, Kirsty” and asking where she was hurt. I was trying to find any wounds, lifting her dress and checking for any wounds. She had a stab wound under her arm and I held it together.’
Alexandre Colou, a French chef, had gone to help Miss Boden when he saw her fall.
‘I thought she had just tripped,’ he said. ‘As I came by her I realised she had blood everywhere so I just knelt down.
‘She was lying on her side. I could see blood coming out from her chest and I just tried to find the wound and apply pressure on it but there was just blood everywhere. I took her head in my hands and her eyes were moving round and she had difficulty breathing.
‘I was talking to her and then she stopped moving. I said: “Stay awake. Stay with me”.’ Off- duty GP Saira Khan arrived on the scene and attempted CPR before concluding that Miss Boden was dead. She said Miss Schroeder begged her to continue trying to revive her friend.
But at 10.23pm, she pronounced Miss Boden dead and went on to help another victim with a stab wound to the neck.
Miss Schroeder, who had asked her friend to be bridesmaid, said she sat on the ground holding Miss Boden’s hand for 20 minutes while ‘staring into space’.
Shocking video footage of the attack on the nurse was played to the Old Bailey inquest into the atrocity yesterday.
Chief coroner Mark Lucraft QC said the footage showed a ‘clear picture of the sheer panic of the people as a result of what they have seen’. Gareth Patterson QC, who represents Miss Boden’s family said: ‘The tip of Butt’s knife was found embedded in one of the wounds to her head.
‘Butt swung the knife at her figure, it would appear. At this stage she was thinking of someone else rather than herself.’
The nurse, an Australian who lived with her boyfriend James Hodder in Hampstead, was in Boro Bistro restaurant when Butt, 27, Youssef Zaghba, 22, and Rachid Redouane, 30, launched their attack shortly after 10pm on June 3, 2017.
Before being shot dead by police, the terrorists murdered eight and left another 48 injured. The inquest continues.