The senseless toll taken by Khalid Masood in London terror attack

IT was the last day of their hols. As Americans Kurt and Melissa Cochran took in Big Ben from Westminster Bridge the pair were mown down.

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ON Wednesday, Kurt and Melissa Cochran were just another pair of American tourists in London, taking in the views of the British Parliament and Big Ben from the gothic masterpiece that is Westminster Bridge.

The couple were on the last day of a two-and-a-half week holiday to Germany, Austria and the UK, celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and visiting Melissa’s parents, missionaries at the London Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They were to return to the music studio they ran together in the city of West Bountiful, Utah, on Thursday.

But at 2.38pm, as they stood on the southern entrance to the bridge, across the River Thames from Westminster, the pair were mown down by a car, a speeding Hyundai with terrorist Khalid Masood at the wheel.

Kurt, 54, was thrown off the western side of the bridge, landing metres below down a stone staircase. Reuters photographer Toby Melville, standing at the bottom of the stairs photographing Westminster for a Brexit assignment, was horrified at the thump he made as he landed beside him.

Back up on the bridge, the woman Kurt had described as his “soulmate’’ was injured but alive.

Dressed warmly against the chilly London spring and wearing comfortable shoes for the walk around London’s tourist precinct, Melissa, with a broken leg and ribs, desperately to the arms of a woman bystander who had gone to her aid.

With blood pouring from a head wound and her big blue eyes fixed despairingly on the woman reassuring her, Melissa’s face reflected the horror unfolding around her as Masood continued his rampage towards Westminster. She remains in a London hospital.

Melissa Cochran's face reflecting the horror that was unfolding in London was on the cover of The Daily Telegraph yesterday.

Masood sped north across the 250-metre Westminster Bridge, crossing it in less than a minute, gunning the hired Hyundai 4x4 to speeds of more than 100kmh, targeting pedestrians walking on the western side of the bridge.

He mowed down French students on a school trip, British university students, South Korean tourists, and German-born Australian Patricia Neis-Beer, from the Adelaide Hills, who suffered a crushed foot and has undergone surgery.

Aysha Frade was on the bridge, having left work at the nearby DLD College to pick up her daughters, aged 8 and 11, from school. The 43-year-old was killed almost instantly when the impact of Masood’s car threw her into the path of a passing bus. Two little girls lost their mother, Jonathan Frade lost his wife and DLD College lost a colleague they described as a wonderful person who was much loved by all her knew her.

Another pair of tourists, Romanians Andreea Cristea, 29, an architect, and her fiance, engineer Andrei Burnaz, were enjoying a trip to London to celebrate his birthday.

A fraction of a second after the car passed by, Andreea was spotted plunging into the icy waters of the Thames, a six-metre drop at low tide.

The Port Authority of London pulled Andreea from the water at 2.49pm, where she underwent emergency medical treatment on a riverside pier before being rushed to hospital in a critical condition.

Andrei was taken to hospital with a fractured foot.

Kurt Cochran was killed and wife Melissa badly injured.

Kurt and Melissa Cochran loved life and each other.

As Masood neared Westminster, he swerved off the footpath and into the cycle lane, avoiding a barrier placed on the bridge precisely to stop attacks like the one he was carrying out now.

Behind him, 40 people lay injured, some catastrophically, some walking wounded.

Among them was a 75-year-old man, whose injuries were so severe he died on Thursday afternoon when his life support was turned off in hospital.

Other victims included a young man in tan pants, comforted by a blonde woman who huddled over him in the gutter.

A Korean tourist in a pink puffer jacket lay crumpled on the footpath.

A man dressed in a business suit lay crumpled on the road, one shoe missing, his legs obviously broken.

Masood rammed the car into the wrought-iron protective fence surrounding Westminster, grabbed two knives and ran through a vehicle gate into New Palace Yard, where a gate guarded by police officers had been left ajar to allow members of Parliament to come and go in their vehicles.

Here, he was confronted by Constable Keith Palmer, 48, a member of the Parliamentary and diplomatic protection unit, who challenged the terrorist, despite being unarmed.

Masood stabbed the police officer several times, then fell to the ground after being shot three times by armed police at 2.43pm.

His deadly rampage had taken just five minutes. The grief and pain he inflicted on his innocent victims will last a lifetime.

Melissa Cochran’s sister Sara details that her brother-in-law Kurt has died in the London terror attack. Picture: Sara Payne-Mcfarland

Floral tributes and a photograph of PC Keith Palmer lay outside the Houses of Parliament. Picture: Jack Taylor

Bret Layton cries as he talks about his friend and business associate, Kurt Cochran in West Bountiful, Utah. Picture: Rick Bowmer

Melissa and Kurt Cochran were the first people hurt by Khalid Masood’s speeding car on Westminster Bridge Picture: Melissa Payne Cochran