Canadian woman who died in her fiance’s arms among victims of London attack

Newspapers said 30-year-old Christine Archibald, one of seven people killed in the attack, was a charity worker.

Flowers lie at a makeshift memorial on London Bridge on June 5, 2017. Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA

LONDON // Christine Archibald, a 30-year-old Canadian woman, died in her fiance’s arms after being hit by the van on London Bridge in Saturday’s terror attack.

“My baby brother lost the love of his life on the London Bridge,” Cassie Ferguson Rowe wrote of her brother Tyler Ferguson on Facebook.

“In a split second his entire life was ripped away from him. Hearing his painful sobs on the phone while he’s alone trying to deal with this tears me apart.”

Newspapers said Archibald, one of seven people killed in the attack, was a charity worker.

“We grieve the loss of our beautiful, loving daughter and sister,” her family said in a statement. “She had room in her heart for everyone and believed strongly that every person was to be valued and respected.

“She lived this belief, working in a shelter for the homeless until she moved to Europe to be with her fiance.”

“She would have had no understanding of the callous cruelty that caused her death,” her family added.

A Frenchman was also killed in the attack, the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said. The man has not yet been formally named by officials or his family.

He had family links to the Brittany port town of Saint-Malo on the north-west French coast but was not from the town himself, said local mayor Claude Renoult.

Local newspapers said the man lived in London and worked in Boro Bistro, a Breton-run restaurant in Borough Market.

Flags in Saint-Malo were flying at half-mast on Monday.

Forty-eight people were taken to hospital following the attack, including seven French nationals, Mr Le Drian said. Four were in a critical condition, while another French national was unaccounted for.

An off-duty, unarmed police officer who was having a drink after work rushed to help but is now in hospital in a serious condition, London police chief Cressida Dick said.

“Without hesitation, wearing his normal clothes, he dived in and tried to assist and I’m afraid was severely injured but utterly heroic,” she told BBC television.

A uniformed British Transport Police officer was one of the first on the scene after responding to calls for help from the public.

He was stabbed in the face, head and leg and taken to hospital but his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

A further two London police officers were wounded: a plain clothes officer received stitches to a head injury and a uniformed officer sustained an arm injury.

Geoff Ho, a business editor at the Sunday Express newspaper, was outside the Southwark Tavern pub. He tried to help a bouncer who was being attacked but was stabbed in the throat himself.

The martial artist was wearing his British Lions shirt after watching the rugby match on television and was filmed being led away from the scene by a policeman, clutching his neck and with his shirt off.

“Don’t know whether it was stupid or noble to jump in and break up the fight outside the Southwark Tavern, but two a***s trying to do over the lone bouncer on the door isn’t happening on my watch,” he wrote on Facebook.

Sunday Express editor Martin Townsend said: "We are all hoping and praying for a speedy recovery."

Oliver Dowling, 32, from Christchurch in New Zealand, was stabbed in the face, neck and stomach and his girlfriend was also injured, newspaper reports said.

He was put into a coma for four hours of surgery.

“This is heartbreaking, Get well soon Oliver and Marie,” his sister Freddy Dowling said on Facebook, also referring to his girlfriend.

Two Australians were also stabbed in the neck.

British media reported that Candice Hedge was recovering in hospital, while Andrew Morrison received stitches for a wound and was on his way home to Australia.

* Agence France-Presse