A woman was stabbed in the head after she rushed to help a victim of the London Bridge terror attack, saying: “I’m a nurse. I have to go and help.”

The inquest into the victims of the attack heard that Australian Kirsty Boden, 28, was attacked after going to the aid of Alexandre Pigeard, 26, on 3 June 2017.

She was caught on mobile phone footage bending over the stricken Frenchman, who had been working as a waiter at the Boro Bistro restaurant, when she was set upon by all three knifemen.

The Old Bailey heard that Khuram Butt, 27, appeared to make a stabbing motion before Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, also moved in. CCTV footage showed her clearly injured as she fled the carnage before collapsing.

Boden had been dining in Boro Bistro with two friends, Harriet Mooney and Melanie Schroeder, where they had been talking about “the future and the plans we could make” when the attackers’ van crashed into railings on street level above the restaurant.

In a statement read to court, Schroeder said Boden had leapt up to help casualties of the debris and bricks that had fallen on to the restaurant’s outside tables, saying: “I’m a nurse. I have to go and help. I need to see if they need help.”

At first Schroeder wanted to wait for Boden, but then joined the “stampede” as diners fled the restaurant. She said: “As I was walking back to the Boro Bistro, I saw Kirsty lying on the corner. I recognised the person lying in the floor as Kirsty because of her bright pink cardigan. I screamed, ‘Kirsty’ and ran down the alleyway.”

Boden had suffered stab wounds and was alive but unable to speak, she said. While Mooney sought emergency medical help, Schroeder assisted with first aid along with a GP, Saira Khan, who gave chest compressions before saying there was nothing more they could do, the court heard.

Gareth Patterson QC, for Boden’s family, said the nurse had risen from her table within seconds of the crash, thinking of others rather than of her own safety.

Boden and Pigeard were among eight people killed when three terrorists mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge and ran amok around Borough Market. The others were Xavier Thomas, 45, Christine Archibald, 30, Sara Zelenak, 21, Sebastien Belanger, 36, James McMullan, 32, and Ignacio Echeverria, 39. Their attackers were shot dead near Borough Market in less than 10 minutes.

On Friday, the inquest also heard that the attackers had tried to decapitate one of their victims. Marie Bondeville said the men “tried to cut my head off” as they began slashing her neck following a sustained knife attack on her upper body.

Bondeville and her partner, Oliver Dowling, had been at Lobos Meat and Tapas, celebrating moving into a flat together, shortly before they were set upon by Butt, Redouane and Zaghba.

In a statement read at the Old Bailey, she described seeing one of the men “walking like he was a boxer going into a fight” as they approached the couple near the bridge.

“I felt a punch on the right side of my face,” said Bondeville, adding that she had heard Dowling shout before watching him fall to the ground at the same time as her. She was then stabbed 18 times as she lay with her legs on the pavement and torso on the road – although at the time, Bondeville had believed she was being punched.

“There were times when I’m sure I was being hit twice at the same time,” she added. At one point, she had tried to reach out her hand to touch Dowling, but could not. She said: “I thought he was dead. I was begging them to stop. At the time, I thought it went on for about 10 minutes, but I’m sure it was only a few seconds.

“The worst part of all of this wasn’t the attack or the pain, but the thought that Oliver was dead because of me.” She said she thought he had died because he tried to protect her.

Bondeville described the eyes of one of the attackers as “like a junkie” and “empty”. She added that she had been aware of people running past and not stopping to help, although she had blacked out after feeling as though she had “been hit with a hammer or an axe”.

After being taken to a London hospital, Bondeville was put into an induced coma for a week by doctors. She sustained 18 stab wounds and 23 cuts and scars. She added that she “clearly remembered” the events “because of the traumatic impact it had on my life”.

Dowling also survived the attack and was taken to University College hospital where he was treated for stab wounds to his face, neck and stomach.

In a separate statement, Dowling said that during the attack he had heard Bondeville shouting: “What are you doing? Leave him alone,” and also initially thought they were being punched by the attackers. He added that he thought Bondeville had died until paramedics began treating her.

The inquest also heard evidence from a British Transport Police officer, Wayne Marques, who witnessed part of the attack on Bondeville and Dowling. He described how he had heard Dowling begging one of the attackers to stop before he was stabbed in the back and neck “without hesitation”.

“I knew I didn’t have long before he was probably going to die in front of me,” said Marques. He then charged at the attacker with his baton from 12 metres away, delivering a blow to his head.

As he fought off the first attacker, two other attackers circled him. He said they “were moving around trying to cut me and stab me”.

During the struggle, Marques felt an “unnatural shuddering” in one of his legs and realised one of the attackers was moving a knife up and down in his leg. He said the attackers were “cold and calculated” and described how they moved in “a formation”.

“They had a system in place. That suggested to me that they knew what they were doing,” he added.

Marques told the inquest that if he had waited for armed police to arrive, the men would have continued to attack victims who were lying injured on the floor. “I just tried to hold on as long as I could,” he said.

Marques was awarded the George medal for his bravery last year.

The inquest continues.