This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The fiance of a London Bridge attack victim has described the scene where she died as like a “war zone”.

Chrissy Archibald, 30, from Canada, was knocked down and killed when the attackers swerved a van into pedestrians. They then launched a knife attack in nearby Borough Market.

A statement from her fiance, Tyler Ferguson, read to the Old Bailey, described how he ran after Archibald as she was dragged along the carriageway by the vehicle.

At the inquest into the deaths of the victims of the 3 June 2017 attack, Ferguson told of his frantic attempts to revive her, despite knowing that she was dead.

He said: “I was looking down at her body while she convulsed and released the life from her physical body.”

He added that he was left “devastated and inconsolable” after her death.

The couple had spent the evening at a Thai restaurant north of the River Thames on the night of the attack, and were walking back to their hotel along the south side of the bridge when the attack happened, shortly after 10pm.

Ferguson described how he had confided in Archibald earlier in the evening about his difficult relationship with his father, to which she had replied that he could be “run over by a bus tomorrow” and should try to rebuild the relationship.

Moments before Archibald was killed, Ferguson said that she had stopped him as they were walking to “passionately” kiss him and say: “I love you.”

Ferguson had tried to call the emergency services after she was hit, but dialled 911 because he did not know the correct number for the UK.

After medics had declared Archibald dead, he tried to retrieve her engagement ring but discovered it had been lost.

“For the first time I took the chance to move the focus from Chrissy. It was chaos and mayhem, it was a war zone,” Ferguson said.

He added that a stranger held him as he cried on his way back to the hotel he had been staying at with Archibald.

Bus driver Anton Sobanski, who was driving the number 40 bus south along the bridge at the time of the attack, broke down as he described seeing Archibald after the van had stopped dragging her.

The other victims who were killed were Xavier Thomas, 45, from France; Sebastien Belanger, 36, a French chef; Kirsty Boden, 28, a nurse from Australia; Ignacio Echeverría Miralles De Imperial, 39, from Spain; James McMullan, 32, from Brent, north-west London; Alexandre Pigeard, 26, a French restaurant worker and Sara Zelenak, 21, an Australian national.

The attackers were Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22.

The inquest continues.