A firefighter who was on the scene of the car crash that killed Princess Diana 27 years ago spoke about hearing her final words.
On this day (31 August) in 1997, a car crash in Paris resulted in Diana’s death.
It’s one of the most famous moments in history, as she’d been in a car speeding away from a hotel while being pursued by paparazzi.
The car was being driven by Henri Paul, deputy head of security at the Ritz Paris, who was later found to have been almost four times over the legal limit for alcohol.
Also in the vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz S 280 Saloon, were Diana’s partner Dodi Fayed and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones.
The car was driven into the Pont de l’Alma tunnel while being pursued and crashed, with Paul and Fayed being pronounced dead at the scene.
Diana died later on in hospital (Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images)
Diana was pronounced dead later on in hospital, while Rees-Jones survived the crash despite sustaining multiple serious injuries.
Given that a horrific crash had occurred, emergency services rushed to the scene and among them was firefighter Xavier Gourmelon, who heard Princess Diana’s final words.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain on the 20th anniversary of her death, the firefighter explained that he was there to hear her final words.
He recounted: “She looked at me and said, ‘Oh my God, what’s happened?’
“I tried to calm her down and tell her we’d look after her, and she fell into a coma again.”
Gourmelon said that when they were responding to the crash, they didn’t know who was in the car at first, and he didn’t recognise that it was Princess Diana who was speaking to him.
The crash occurred on 31 August, 1997. (PIERRE BOUSSEL/AFP via Getty Images)
He said that she was ‘agitated’ at first before losing consciousness again.
She was still in the wreckage of the car at that point and when they took her from the vehicle, she went into cardiac arrest.
He said: “At that moment, the doctor said she was in cardiac arrest. So, we gave her CPR and after 20 seconds, she regained consciousness, and we transferred her to the ambulance.”
The firefighter said he couldn’t see injuries on her body and thought she’d make a full recovery if she could be taken to hospital.
However, she died after another cardiac arrest in the hospital which she couldn’t be resuscitated from.
A French investigation into the crash placed the blame on Henri Paul, while a British inquest delivered a verdict of unlawful killing through grossly negligent driving by Paul and the paparazzi following them.
