Princess Diana’s final words to a firefighter at the scene of the Paris crash that led to her death will stay in his mind “forever”, he said.
The princess, who 36 was at the time, died on August 31 1997 along with her partner Dodi Fayed and the vehicle’s driver Henri Paul after the car they were travelling in crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel.
Firefighter Xavier Gourmelon was one of the first at the scene and raced to help Diana, who he said looked uninjured at the time.
According to Gourmelon, the princess had her eyes open and was conscious before she was removed from the car. He said he held her hand and told her to stay calm.
The firefighter then said Diana asked him “my God, what’s happened?” before going into cardiac arrest.
Gourmelon told The Sun: “I massaged her heart and a few seconds later she started breathing again. It was a relief of course because, as a first responder, you want to save lives — and that’s what I thought I had done.
“To be honest I thought she would live. As far as I knew when she was in the ambulance she was alive and I expected her to live. But I found out later she had died in hospital. It was very upsetting.
“I know now that there were serious internal injuries, but the whole episode is still very much in my mind.
“And the memory of that night will stay with me forever. I had no idea then that it was Princess Diana. It was only when she had been put into the ambulance that one of the paramedics told me it was her.”
