Diana inquest hears of Princess' last words

Two brothers rushed to help Diana, Princess of Wales immediately after the crash which took her life, the inquest into her death heard today.

One, Damian Dalby, told how he heard the Princess repeating the words "Oh my God".

Mr Dalby and his brother, Sebastien Pennequin, were travelling to Paris with friends when they came across the crash in the Pont de l'Alma underpass.

Mr Dalby, at that time a volunteer fireman, was the first to run over to the wreckage of the Mercedes.

Speaking via videolink from Paris this afternoon, he said when he first saw the vehicle, there were people around it taking photographs.

Using a transcript of a statement he made to police just hours after the crash, Mr Dalby recounted to the inquest, sitting at the High Court in London, how he had tried to help the occupants of the Mercedes.

He said: "There was smoke emanating from the vehicle. I wanted to stop the battery but I couldn't."

The car's rear, right hand side door was open, and a photographer was close by, but "he did not stop me from doing my assistance job," Mr Dalby said.

Ian Burnett, counsel for the inquest asked him: "Was it right the lady in the car was trying to speak?"

Mr Dalby replied: "Yes, she was saying: 'Oh my God, oh my God'."

Mr Burnett asked him if it was right that he did not speak English at that time, to which Mr Dalby replied: "That is true even today."

Mr Dalby added: "There was a tourist round there and I asked him to translate to the bodyguard not to move because the emergency services were arriving."

In the statement he made shortly after the crash, Mr Dalby described the translator as dark skinned, possibly North African, wearing a suit and tie, the jury was told.

The statement said: "The man who translated what I said told me he was following the vehicle. It had been travelling at high speed, he literally said they were asked to drive quickly."

Mr Dalby said he remembered one photographer, who, after taking a photograph, shouted "she's alive", and then tried to push the other photographers away.

Mr Burnett asked him: "It appeared to you he wanted to stop the others taking photographs?"

Mr Dalby replied: "Yes."

Mr Dalby said that when he got out of his car, he had seen an SOS Medicins (medics) vehicle nearby.

"When I arrived I saw nobody," he said.

"I shouted: 'Where is the doctor?' because I could see his car, but I couldn't see anybody."

Mr Dalby was asked if he knew who a second, unidentified, off-duty fireman at the scene was, but he replied that he did not know him.

Mr Dalby said police arriving on the scene tried move the photographers away from the wreckage of the car.

Mr Burnett asked: "Did you hear a photographer say something to a policeman?"

Mr Dalby replied: "Yes, something like: 'We are earning our money out of that, please let us do our job'."

Richard Keen QC, representing the family of driver Henri Paul, told Mr Dalby: "Even though this event was over 10 years ago, I have been asked to thank you for the assistance you attempted to give to the victims of the crash."

Mr Pennequin told the inquest earlier how he had followed his brother, Mr Dalby, out of their car and described how his brother had tried to help the occupants of the Mercedes.

"He did some kind of assessment, he looked at the conditions of the people in the car."

He also said he saw a car, which was a dark colour, at the exit of the underpass.

He said: "I saw someone running back from where the smoke was coming from, He was returning to the car, where someone was holding a phone and waiting for him."

The jury heard that in a statement he gave shortly after the crash, Mr Pennequin described an exchange he had with a photographer.

He had been trying to help police "push" them back.

The statement said: "They continued taking photographs, it was then I spoke to them telling them to stop.

"'The people must know that Princess Diana is alive,' one of them said."

Under cross-examination from Ian Croxford QC, representing the Ritz Hotel, Paris, Mr Pennequin was asked about helping another man to call the fire brigade.

Mr Croxford said: "This other man with the mobile phone was talking to the fire brigade, but first of all didn't know how many people had been injured. And you told him that there was, as you saw it, two people who were dead, and two people who were injured."

Mr Pennequin, referring to his statement said: "Yes, there were two people who looked like they were dead."

"Did you also tell him to tell the fire brigade that they would need cutting equipment?" Mr Croxford asked.

"Yes," Mr Pennequin said.