Vehicle tried to slow Diana car, inquest hears

A "blocking vehicle" was trying to slow down Diana, Princess of Wales' speeding Mercedes so paparazzi could take pictures of it as it entered the Pont de l'Alma underpass, her inquest heard.

The dark car appeared to form a "compact group" with several motorcyclists following the Princess's vehicle moments before it crashed in the tunnel, a witness said.

Olivier Partouche, who was then working as a chauffeur, was standing on the roadside waiting for a client when he saw the Mercedes travelling at great speed towards the underpass.

In a statement to French police made at the time he estimated it was travelling at 150km/h (93mph).

He said on Wednesday he thought it was slower than this but still "very very fast".

In front of the Mercedes was a car and following it were "a number of motorcycles", he told the jury sitting at the High Court in London by videolink from Paris.

In his first statement to French police, made just two hours after the crash, Mr Partouche recalled that the car was attempting to slow down Diana's vehicle.

"In front of the Mercedes was a car, of which I could not tell you the make," he said. "It was dark in colour and clearly this car was trying to make the Mercedes slow down.

"The Mercedes was black. I think it was an S Class 500. The object of the manoeuvre was to make it possible for the paparazzi to take photographs."

In the same statement he referred to the dark car as "the blocking vehicle" and said the Mercedes had pulled out past it.

Other witnesses also recalled seeing a dark car in front of Diana's Mercedes inside the tunnel.

One Frenchwoman going through the underpass at the time of the crash said the vehicle was “hindering” the Princess’s speeding car by travelling “rather slowly” ahead of it in the fast lane.

Gaelle Lhostis told the jury she was asleep in her fiancé's white Renault Super 5 as he drove towards the tunnel.

But she was woken up when he braked suddenly and by the sound of screeching tyres.

Mrs Lhostis recalled seeing a small car in front of Diana’s black Mercedes and a motorbike behind it, the inquest heard.

In a statement to French police made just hours after the crash, she said: “I saw a vehicle of a dark colour, a Clio or a Super 5-type that was driving rather slowly.

“It was hindering a Mercedes that was following it at a high speed.”

Speaking by videolink from Paris today, she clarified that she did not intend to suggest the car was purposely hindering the Mercedes.

“I did not want to say that it was deliberate,” she said.

She described the Mercedes swerving from side to side before it crashed in her first statement to French police, which was read to the jury.

In it she said: “The car went left then right, and hit the wall, and then the horn started sounding.”

Mrs Lhostis also spoke of her fear that the Princess’s vehicle would hit her own car, which was travelling in the opposite direction.

“I had the impression the Mercedes was going towards us and actually I think if there hadn’t been pillars we would have collided with it,” she said.

“But as there were pillars, it collided with a pillar.”

Benoit Boura, then Mrs Lhostis’s fiancé and now her husband, recalled seeing “violent flashes” before he drove into the tunnel ahead of the horrific crash.

Under cross-examination by Ian Croxford QC, counsel for the Ritz Hotel in Paris, he confirmed that he initially believed they came from radar or speed camera.

Mr Croxford asked him: “You having been a driver in the army, when you saw this flash or flashes, you immediately thought they were radar flashes or speed trap flashes?”

He replied: “Yes.”

After the crash Mr Boura parked his car on the other side of the tunnel and tried to stop other motorists from entering.

But one man on a scooter drove past him saying either “press” or “photographer”, he told the jury.

Mr Boura, who also gave evidence via videolink from Paris, described this man as having a beard and wearing a white crash helmet and dungarees.

About 15 minutes later he and his fiancée entered the tunnel themselves.

They found the emergency services trying to free people trapped in the car and to revive Dodi.

There were also six or seven photographers taking pictures of the scene, Mr Boura said.

He told the jury: “They (the rescue services) were taking care of Dodi al Fayed behind the Mercedes, and were certainly trying to make his heart go again.

“He was naked and they were trying to open up the roof of the Mercedes.”

Mrs Lhostis recalled that one of the photographers was calm but another lost his temper with the police.

A third insulted her when she questioned what he was doing, she said.

“I was trying to stop him from taking photographs and he insulted me really, and the police said to me that they were going to take care of him and so that I should not worry about it,” she told the jury.