A woman kissed her fiance and told him she loved him as they strolled across London Bridge moments before she was struck down by terrorists deliberately driving a van at pedestrians, an inquest has heard.

Heart-wrenching details emerged on Tuesday as the inquest began into the deaths of eight people in the 3 June 2017 attack. All eight died in the first three minutes of the atrocity.

The chief coroner of England and Wales, Mark Lucraft QC, said the terrorists went on the rampage in the heart of London on a night of “high and terrible drama”, first running people down on London Bridge in a van rented that day, then sprinting out of the vehicle wearing fake suicide bomb vests and stabbing people at random with pink ceramic knives bought for £4 each from Lidl.

The court heard details of each those killed on the warm summer’s evening. A French man, Xavier Thomas, 45, was run over in the 18th second of a phone call to his son and thrown into the River Thames. An off-duty nurse was stabbed as she tended to the wounded, and a Spanish man was attacked while trying to save a woman by smacking the terrorists with a skateboard.

The inquest is the first and probably only opportunity the victims’ families will have to ask key questions of the authorities. Among those questions are how the ringleader, Khuram Butt, 27, was able to attack while under investigation by MI5. The other terrorists were Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22.

Another key issue is whether London Bridge should have had additional protective measures in place three months after the atrocity at Westminster Bridge, where a terrorist assault also began with pedestrians being mown down. The national security and policy issues will be examined during the two months of the inquest.

But on the first day at the Old Bailey the courtroom was turned into a cathedral of remembrance.

Christine Archibald, 30, a Canadian, was on her first trip to London with her fiance, Tyler Ferguson. He told the inquest: “We decided to walk over London Bridge; at one point Chrissy stopped me out of nowhere, grabbed me close and gave me a passionate kiss after telling me she loved me. I remember it being a warm summer’s evening and the sun had just gone down. And then the attack took place and Chrissy was killed.”

In every instance, if the victims had made slightly different decisions they would not have been in the path of the terrorists, but others would have been. At least two of those killed went towards the danger to help.

Ignacio Echeverría Miralles de Imperial, 39, encountered a woman called Marie being stabbed while on the ground, whom two unarmed police officers also tried to save. She lived, but he died.

The coroner said: “He joined PC [Wayne] Marques and PC [Charlie] Guenigault in trying to prevent the attack by the three attackers on Marie. Ignacio hit Redouane and possibly also hit Zaghba with a skateboard that he had with him. Again, his courageous efforts were to seek to stop the attack. In the course of doing what he did, he was fatally stabbed.”

Kirsty Boden, 28, an Australian nurse, was dining in the courtyard of the Borough Bistro. The van crashed into railings by a pub just overhead, sending debris crashing on to diners.

The court heard that the three Islamist terrorists sprinted out of the van shouting “Allahu Akbar” and started stabbing people. Boden went to the aid of Alexandre Pigeard, 26, a French restaurant worker who had been stabbed and was dying.

Boden was stabbed in the chest by Butt, who made a “swinging motion” at her with his knife, but she managed to flee, only to collapse in an alleyway where she was later found by the two friends she had gone out with. A passing GP known as Dr Khan tried in vain to save her life.

Her partner, James Holler, said he had been astonished that Boden had fallen for a “pasty, mumbling British accountant” such as himself, but the self-deprecating joke could not hide his loss. He told the court: “I am still head over heels in love with Kirsty and I miss her so much.”

The families of Pigeard and Boden, united by the actions and tragedies of their loved ones, met near the witness box and embraced.

The inquest opened with key facts outlined by the coroner, followed by pen portraits of the dead from their loved ones. The terrorists killed two people with the van and six with the knives.

Among those were 21-year-old Sara Zelenak, an Australian au pair, and Sébastien Bélanger, 36, a French chef. The coroner said Bélanger was “cornered by all three attackers” and fought back bravely but died after sustaining “horrific injuries”.

The attack happened on the evening of the Champions League final, which was being watched in a pub by 32-year-old James McMullan, the only Briton killed that evening. He went out for a cigarette and was caught up in the attack. He was found dead in an alleyway.

Another 48 people were injured, some seriously. The attack from its start to its end, when police officers shot the three terrorists, lasted no more than 10 minutes.

The coroner said: “The lives of many people were torn apart by what took place in less than 10 minutes of high and terrible drama.”

All of the family statements were heard in court by Neil Basu, at the time senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism, and now head of counter-terrorism for the police. For the start he was joined by the Met commissioner, Cressida Dick.

The London Bridge attack was one of four terrorist atrocities in the UK between March and June 2017. A review for the government by David Anderson QC said: “The unpalatable lesson of London Bridge is that even priority subjects of interest in respect of whom sound decisions are being made … may retain the ability to conceal their attack planning from the authorities.”

The inquest, which may test those conclusions, continues. It will hear from MI5 next month.