Boyfriend of Romanian tourist killed in Westminster terror attack describes heartbreaking moment he lost her after she was knocked into Thames
THE heartbroken boyfriend of a tourist killed in the Westminster terror attack has recalled the desperate search to find her.
Andreea Cristea, 31, plunged to her death moments after taking smiling selfies with Andrei Burnaz by the Houses of Parliament.
The Romanian interior designer was mowed down by a 4x4 car driven by terrorist Khalid Masood, 52, on March 22 last year.
She was thrown into the Thames and her devastated boyfriend Andrei launched a desperate search to find her.
Andrei who was due to propose to Andrea later that day, gave harrowing evidence to the Westminster terror attack inquest today.
He said: "Suddenly I heard screaming and some noises in front of me.
"I saw the car come towards us and I felt a burning sensation in my left foot and another banging from something that the car hit, probably underneath.
"I looked in the left side of me to search for Andreea because I didn't know what happened but I didn't see her so I turned my head backwards towards the car and to see if it will stop but nothing happened so I started searching for Andreea.
"I started running around but I couldn't see her.
"After that I started running towards the car to see what happened or I thought that she was struck by the car and she was stuck underneath the car or something.
"There were plenty people on the pavement, some of these were covered with blood and there were pools of blood everywhere."
Andrei frantically searched for his girlfriend at the scene.
He said: "I saw plenty of police officers armed with machine guns so I ran and I tried to explain to him what happened and I tried to explain him that I couldn't find my girlfriend and he only started yelling and said, 'Get back, get back, clear the area'.
"And I couldn't do anything so I went back to the spot that I was struck.
"I tried to call her on the phone, her phone started ringing and I thought that this is positive thing, but I found her phone and her glasses in a pool of blood."
In the meantime he was seen to by a paramedic and told he would need to go to hospital.
Most read in news
Passengers on the Millennium Diamond clipper pressed against the windows and took out their phones as the drivers walked onto their bows to retrieve Andreea.
Masood was killed after ramming the hired Hyundai 4x4 into at least 35 people on the bridge and leaving the vehicle to stab PC Palmer to death by the Palace of Westminster.
Spanish teacher and mother-of-two Aysha Frade, 43 from London, US tourist Kurt Cochran, 54, window cleaner Leslie Rhodes, 75, and Ms Cristea all died of their injuries in the attack.
Yesterday an inquest heard how teacher Aysha had been worried about terrorism but thought she lived in the safest part of London.
The inquest continues.