Vital minutes lost in Westminster attack victim rescue, inquest hears

Vital minutes were lost in the battle to save a victim of the Westminster terror attack as she was held face down in water, an inquest has heard.

Andreea Cristea, 31, had plunged into the Thames after being hit by Khalid Masood’s car as she walked on Westminster Bridge with her boyfriend, Andrei Burnaz.

Mr Burnaz was desperately searching for his partner as Michael Brown shouted and gestured to alert a passing tourist boat to her floating face down in the water.

Despite an emergency distress signal, along with shouts from Mr Brown and passengers on the City Cruises tourist clipper, Skipper Danny Cooper initially thought Ms Cristea’s body was “garbage”.

CCTV footage captured Captain Gordon Markley asking if it was a “wind-up” before heading outside with a boat hook.

Mr Cooper said he and his colleague assumed the Romanian tourist had been in the water for hours or days and believed it was “impossible” to fish her out using the hook.

“We presumed it was a body that had been in the water for a long time and by pulling on a dead body that has been in the water it was just going to fall apart,” he said.

“It wouldn’t have been nice for anyone involved. There were children sitting downstairs.”

Gareth Patterson QC, representing Ms Cristea’s family, said she had been face down in the river for two minutes when she was first secured, but remained immersed for five minutes before she was brought out.

The inquest heard at one point Mr Markley even released her to fish out a certificate he spotted floating in the river.

Mr Patterson asked Mr Cooper: “My suggestion is, if you wanted to get her out, Mr Gordon Markley and another man could have brought her out of the water with that 15ft pole.

“My suggestion is the hook is sufficient to grab the person and pull them up with the assistance of another person.

“This was a young woman of 5ft 5in, of slim build, weighing only 11 stone.

“Are you really suggesting she could not have been lifted by two men?”

The witness said: “Definitely not”

Mr Patterson continued: “Mr Cooper, there was nothing stopping her being lifted by a matter of inches to see if she was alive, to lift her face out of the water?”

“I don’t know,” Mr Cooper replied.

Mr Cooper told the inquest he had past experience of fishing unconscious people out of the water but had no training on how to do it on the high-sided clipper.

Asked if he thought it would have been possible to get Ms Cristea out of the water more quickly or more safely, Mr Cooper said: “In the conditions or circumstances, no.”

Mr Patterson added: “With hindsight, Mr Cooper, do you agree the more appropriate course of action would be immediately to get Gordon to try and get that person out of the water as a matter of emergency?”

“Of course, it was physically impossible,” said Mr Cooper.

The barrister suggested: “But you never did.”

“No sir,” Mr Cooper replied.

The inquest heard London Fire Brigade’s Fire Flash boat arrived on the scene and used a specialist piece of equipment to bring Ms Cristea on board. She died in hospital on April 6 last year.