Princess Diana’s heartbreaking words to firefighter who held her hand after tragic crash
It’s almost the 25th anniversary of the tragic death of Princess Diana – and one of the emergency responders that was first one the scene after the shocking car crash in Paris revealed what she said to him
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British media react to Princess Diana’s death
The tragic death of Princess Diana almost 25 years ago sent shockwaves around the world.
The princess was just 36 when she died following a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, that also killed her companion Dodi Fayed and the vehicle’s driver. The car had crashed into the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in the French capital, and in the aftermath of the crash, emergency service raced to the scene. One of them was firefighter Xavier Gourmelon, who when he first saw Diana, had no idea who she was. He didn’t believe the “blonde woman” in the back of the car was seriously injured as she had her eyes open and was conscious.
The 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death is fast approaching
Image:
( PA)
Before she was taken out of the car, he held her hand and comforted her, telling her to stay calm.
Diana then asked him: “My God, what’s happened?” Just moments later she suffered a cardiac arrest.
Mr Gourmelon previously 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.
Princess Diana’s coffin arrives back in the UK at RAF Northolt
Image:
( Getty Images)
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“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.”
Mourners line the streets as Princess Diana’s coffin passes Buckingham Palace on the day of her funeral
Image:
( Corbis via Getty Images)
Despite doctors’ best efforts, Diana was declared dead at 4am local time, 3am in the UK, at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris.
Tonight, Channel 4 will be showing the first episode in a four-part series called Investigating Diana: Death In Paris, which will recount the dual inquiries into the incident.
The first was by the French Brigade Criminelle in 1997, the second by the Metropolitan Police in 2004.
The documentary, a co-production between Channel 4 and Discovery Plus, will be told as a “gripping and forensic police procedural” and explore “how powerful individuals, the press and the internet created and fuelled conspiracy theories that overwhelmed facts and called into question the very nature of truth”.
It will feature interviews with detectives from both forces, some of them speaking publicly for the first time
The series will also examine the public’s “insatiable demand for answers, which fuelled unprecedented press interest and the proliferation of online chatrooms, where speculation on the ‘real cause’ of Diana’s death became one of the first viral sensations of the early internet”.
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