It’s reported that chauffeur Henri Paul lost control of the car at the entrance to the Pont de l’Alma underpass and struck another vehicle, before swerving to the left of the two-lane tunnel and colliding with a column at an estimated 65 mph.
The crashed claimed Diana, Dodi, and Henri’s lives. The only passenger to survive was Dodi’s bodygard, Trevor Rees-Jones.
Emergency services rushed to the scene following the catastrophic crash, and among the first to arrive was firefighter Xavier Gourmelon.
Gourmelon said he didn’t immediately recognize Diana, but said that the ‘blonde woman’ in the backseat was conscious when he approached the vehicle.
The firefighter claims he was was holding her hand and reassuring her while they waited for her to be extracted from the wreckage when Diana said four words that would end up being her last.
“My God, what’s happened?” she asked moments before going into cardiac arrest.
Diana was later pronounced dead at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris. Speaking to The Sun, Gourmelon recalled what happened on that tragic night.
“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’, he told the outlet.
“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,” he continued.
“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.”
People around the world grieved following the news of Diana’s death. Tens of thousands of people are said to have flocked to Kensington Palace to pay their respects, and her televised funeral was watched an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide.