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'Chaos, just chaos': Terrifying accounts of Westminster attack heard at inquests

"I remember seeing the front of the vehicle. The next thing I remember 鈥� being on the ground," a survivor tells the Old Bailey.

Tuesday 11 September 2018 19:26, UK

CCTV image dated 22/03/17 issued by the Metropolitan Police of Kurt Cochran, one of the victims of the Westminster Bridge terror attack, walking on to the bridge with his wife Melissa. The inquest into the death of Mr Cochran, along with Andreea Cristea, Aysha Frade, Leslie Rhodes and PC Keith Palmer, continues at the Old Bailey.
Image: Kurt and his wife Melissa were American tourists in London
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The wife of a Westminster attack victim says she has no memory of her husband pushing her out of the way of the approaching car.

American tourist Kurt Cochran, 54, took the full impact of terrorist Khalid Masood's hired Hyundai Tucson in March last year.

His wife Melissa, who was also struck by the car, said she remembered "seeing the front of the vehicle".

She added: "The next thing I remember - being on the ground."

Mr Cochran was sent flying off Westminster Bridge and onto the embankment below.

His injuries were so severe that he was pronounced dead 17 minutes after a paramedic arrived, as Big Ben struck 3pm.

Crashed car
Image: A forensics officer photographs the crashed car

Mrs Cochran was also badly injured and spent about a month in hospital.

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The couple had visited a number of tourist attractions, finishing with Westminster Abbey.

"We had one day in London so we were cramming everything in we could," Mrs Cochran said.

"We had two-and-a-half hours in London before the attack."

Flowers and messages are left near the scene of an attack by a man driving a car and weilding a knife left five people dead and dozens injured, in London
Image: Flowers and messages left near the scene

Gareth Patterson QC, representing three of the victims, said: "Kurt's right arm went out. Do you remember when he reached across and then pushed you out of the way?"

While Mrs Cochran said it would have been typical of her husband, she said she had no recollection of it.

A teacher who was with a group of teenage schoolchildren on a trip to London that day, Kylie Smith, said Masood had deliberately targeted Mr Cochran as he stood by a souvenir stand.

"It was very clearly a deliberate act - the way he turned the car to change the direction," she told the inquests at the Old Bailey.

"The car came towards them. The man tried to pull his girlfriend behind him, tried to shield her from the impact.

"The man went over the car and just flew up in the air."

It was "chaos" on the bridge, she said, "just chaos".

Police officers and forensics investigators work on Westminster Bridge
Image: Police officers and forensics investigators working on Westminster Bridge

Neil Hulbert and his nephew had been walking along the South Bank after a trip on the London Eye when they heard an "almighty crash".

Mr Hulbert said Mr Cochran was "flying through the air", landing two or three metres away from him.

Mr Cochran had "laboured" breathing, he added, had broken his legs and was bleeding from a head injury and through his nostrils.

Retired window cleaner Leslie Rhodes, 75, was the second pedestrian to be knocked down on the bridge.

Dr Gareth Lloyd, who was passing at the time and stepped in to help, told the inquests that Mr Rhodes' injuries were "unsurvivable".

Masood killed four pedestrians including Aysha Frade, 44, and Andreea Cristea, 31, before stabbing PC Keith Palmer to death at the gates to the Palace of Westminster.

He was shot dead by a plain-clothes police officer.

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