Final words of Princess Diana to fire worker who held her hand after accident

• The princess was 36 when she died in a Paris car crash with Dodi Fayed and the driver on August 31, 1997.
• In the aftermath of the disaster, rescue services rushed to the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.
• Firefighter Xavier Gourmelon didn’t recognise Diana at first.

The death of Princess Diana in 1997 produced worldwide shockwaves.

The princess was 36 when she died in a Paris car crash with Dodi Fayed and the driver on August 31, 1997. In the aftermath of the disaster, rescue services rushed to the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris. Firefighter Xavier Gourmelon didn’t recognise Diana at first. He didn’t think the “blonde woman” in the backseat was gravely harmed because she was conscious.

He held her hand and told her to stay calm before she was removed from the automobile.

Diana then asked him: “My God, what’s happened?” Just moments later she suffered a cardiac arrest.

Mr Gourmelon previously said: “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.

“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.

Diana was proclaimed dead at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris at 4am local time, 3am in the UK.

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