The London Bridge attackers began stabbing a woman who was already on the ground and a man who had stopped to help her, seconds after their van had come to a halt, an inquest has heard.
Two people believed to be Sara Zelenak, 21, an au pair from Queensland, Australia, and James McMullan, 32, from Brent, north-west London, who died from their injuries, were set upon immediately by the terrorists, who had already mown down pedestrians on the night of 3 June 2017, the court was told.
Giving evidence at the Old Bailey on Monday, Erick Siguenza said he had seen the three attackers step out of the Ford Transit van, brandishing knives, within 10 seconds of it stopping.
“As soon as the van crashed, they [the attackers] stepped out and the driver was the one that stabbed the woman who had jumped out to get out of the way of the van. She was still on the floor,” he said.
Siguenza, who filmed footage of the attacks shown previously in court, said a man had come to the woman’s aid. “He has just grabbed her left arm and gently tried to pick her up, but by then the attackers were already in close proximity and began attacking. There was no time for him to help her. The driver and the other terrorists were already running towards them,” he said.
He said the woman had been stabbed on her left side and the man on the left side of his chest or heart.
Gareth Patterson QC, representing several of the victims’ families, said the woman and man Siguenza had seen being attacked were believed to be Zelenak and McMullan. He suggested Zelenak may have slipped as she attempted to flee because it was wet and she was wearing high heels. The lawyer said a pathologist’s report showed she had injured an ankle.
Earlier on Monday, Priscila Gonçalves, a friend of Zelenak who was on a night out with her, recounted the last time she saw her as everyone began fleeing.
Gonçalves said they had been heading down stairs on the bridge leading to Green Dragon Court, to find a bar.
She said they had heard a loud noise that sounded like a crash and started heading back up the steps, but people had begun shouting.
“We were together. People said: ‘Run.’ I started running,” Gonçalves said. “I thought she [Zelenak] was with me, but when I looked, she was not … Everybody was running. It was just my instinct to do the same. Of course I looked but I couldn’t do anything.”
Gonçalves said that as she had fled, she had tried to call her friend, but there was no answer. She eventually took refuge in a restaurant and, after being told to move by police, in a hotel. She continued trying to trace her friend in the days that followed.
“I was hoping she was maybe hiding somewhere, I don’t know,” she said.
Clint Wallis, a police officer, told the inquest that when he found Zelenak, who had been stabbed in the neck, on the ground, she was not breathing and had no pulse. He attempted to give her chest compressions, but these failed to revive her.
He later went to help people in Green Dragon Court, including McMullan, where, Wallis told the court, he became concerned about an absence of paramedics.
Siguenza said that after the terrorists had attacked the man and woman on the bridge, they had gone down the stone steps and begun trying to attack people outside a bar in Green Dragon Court, but had had glasses and chairs thrown at them.
“They [the terrorists] started attacking a few people from what I remember, but when they were outnumbered – people were fighting back – they started running away,” he told the court.
Siguenza said one of the attackers who was behind the others as they fled had stabbed a woman several times. She fell down before being helped away by two women.
Gary Edwards, the first paramedic on the scene of the attacks, was asked about the response of London ambulance service.
Edwards, who checked Zelenak on the bridge and declared her dead, said he did not hear Wallis shouting up from Green Dragon Court that help was needed, nor his LAS colleague Jake Carlson reply: “Someone will be with you shortly.”
Edwards, who was on duty that night as a roving police medic, said he, Carlson and another LAS colleague evacuated the bridge after hearing shots fired, which meant the area became a designated “hot area”, where paramedics were not permitted to operate. “Our priority was to get everyone else to safety,” he said.
He said he did not believe they could have saved the lives of those who lay wounded in Green Dragon Court – McMullan and Sebastien Belanger, 36, a chef from France – because they were already in cardiac arrest.
He said he and a colleague were told by police to go into Borough Market to attend to casualties but refused because they were told there could be a gunman there and they did not have an armed police escort.
The others killed were Chrissy Archibald, 30, from Canada, Kirsty Boden, 28, a nurse from Australia, Ignacio Echeverría Miralles De Imperial, 39, a Spanish financial analyst, Alexandre Pigeard, 26, a French restaurant worker, and Xavier Thomas, 45, a French national.
The attackers were Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22.
The inquest continues.
