Andrei Burnaz, pictured at the Old Bailey today, has told an inquest into the Westminster terror attack how he ran up and down the bridge looking for his partner Andreea Cristea only to find her phone and glasses covered in blood
The boyfriend of a Westminster terror attack victim today described running up and down the bridge hunting for his partner but only finding her bloodied mobile phone.
Andreea Cristea, 32, was the last victim of Khalid Masood and was flung over the parapet into the River Thames after being hit by his car.
Today Andrei Burnaz, who had planned to propose to the interior designer later that day, described the chaos and his panic in the aftermath of the attack.
He told the Old Bailey inquest: ‘I started searching for Andreea and I started running over the bridge. But I couldn’t see her’.
Mr Burnaz said he ran towards the terrorist’s car but was turned back by police trying to clear Parliament Square.
He said that he then rang Andreea’s phone – and gained hope because it began to ring – only to find her mobile and glasses in a pool of blood.
The couple were taking photos of the London Eye before she was knocked into the river and killed in the Westminster terror attack.
Miss Cristea, 32, was the last victim of Khalid Masood on Westminster Bridge and was flung over the parapet into the River Thames.
The interior designer was on holiday with her boyfriend and had just finished looking around Westminster Abbey and was heading towards the London Eye when Masood struck.
The impact of the car propelled her over the balustrade and 12.5m down to the water below, the inquests into the victims’ deaths heard yesterday.
This is one of the last photos taken by tourist Andreea Cristea on Westminster Bridge before she was hit by a car driven by terrorist Khalid Masood and knocked into the Thames
The photos, shown at the victims’ inquests yesterday, show Miss Cristea and her boyfriend had been sightseeing in Parliament Square before the terror attack which claimed her life
Her family released this photo of her as they described her as an ‘independent, strong and reliable young woman’
A tourist boat, the Millennium Diamond, found her face down in the river after she had been carried 100m, and a London Fire Brigade boat helped get her out of the water.
From there Ms Cristea was handed over to paramedics who rushed her away in an ambulance.
She had spent 8min and 55 sec in the water and was unconscious but showing signs of life.
She was transferred to St Thomas’ Hospital, which sit at the south side of Westminster Bridge, but never regained consciousness and on April 6 she was declared dead from multiple organ failure and a head injury.
Yesterday a 999 call made by a witness, Michael Brown, was played in court: ‘There’s a woman in the water drowning [inaudible] f**k.
‘There’s a boat, try and get the boat. She’s been spotted, she’s been spotted.’
Known to her family as Nia, Cristea ran her own interior design company in Romania and loved travelling.
The daughter of a surgeon and a pharmacist, she was privately educated in Constanta and studied marketing at the university.
She was described as a ‘very independent, strong and reliable young woman’ who was ‘dedicated and hardworking’ and saving to buy her buy her own house.
‘She was very proud of everything she had achieved and her financial independence. She absolutely loved traveling and enjoyed going on trips abroad, to visit different countries and to see and experience new cultures, people and discover unknown things,’ Magdelana Toi, told the inquest.
‘She was very fond of sports and loved to go to the gym, it was very important to her to be fit and healthy.
Miss Cristea had been visiting London with her boyfriend Andrei in the days before the atrocity
Masood killed five in his 82-second rampage over Westminster Bridge in March last year. He killed four pedestrians on the bridge before crashing into Parliament and stabbing a policeman
She shared a passion for traveling with her boyfriend, Andrei and they went to Thailand together.
‘She very much enjoyed taking pictures of her trips and everywhere she went,’ Ms Toi said.
‘She very much wanted her own family, but all her dreams were shattered when she went on her final trip to England.’
The inquest was read a letter she had written herself in January 2017.
It read: ‘The year 2017 will be the best year of my life from every point of view. I will buy my first house with my own money and I will decorate it in an industrial cozy, loft style.
‘I will be happy, cheerful, jovial and emotionally and sentimentally fulfilled
Masood drove along the pavement of Westminster Bridge before running into the grounds of Parliament
‘My business will be successful and I will break all my personal records with my future projects and customers.
‘I will have a wonderful man by my side who will love and worship me, with this man I will have a wonderful family.’
‘Heartbreakingly sad, isn’t it?’ Ms Toi said. ‘We will never forget our Nia.’
‘We were all hoping for a recovery despite of her critical but stable condition,’ she added.
‘We were hoping for a miracle. It is hard to find words to describe those incredibly difficult days and weeks. No one can imagine what you really feel.
‘After two excruciating weeks of hoping for a recovery, the worst case scenario occurred.’