Eyewitness to Diana crash says it was accident

An eyewitness to the Paris car crash which killed Britain's Princess Diana has told a British newspaper it was an accident, casting doubt on numerous conspiracy theories that she was murdered.

Mohamed Medjahdi, 29, said he was driving directly in front of Diana's Mercedes limousine when it crashed in a tunnel in the French capital in August 1997. The car had been speeding out of control, and no other cars or people had been involved, he said.

"I am absolutely convinced, clear and certain that this was a tragedy - but it was an accident," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying yesterday. "Any conspiracy would have had to be carried out by invisible men."

Diana, her lover Dodi al Fayed and their chauffeur Henri Paul died in the crash. French investigators, said by the Mail to have interviewed Mr Medjahdi repeatedly, concluded in 1999 the accident was caused by Paul being drunk and driving too fast.

But more sinister theories still flourish, most recently fuelled by the revelation Diana had written a letter 10 months before her death claiming her former husband, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, was plotting to kill her in a car crash.

Dodi's father Mohammed al Fayed, multi-millionaire owner of the exclusive London store Harrods, has long claimed British secret services were responsible because the couple's relationship was an embarrassment to the royal family.

The French magazine Paris Match, which also published Mr Medjahdi's story, quoted former interior minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement as saying al Fayed's first reaction on hearing the details of the crash from him was the remark: "It is fate."

At the opening of an inquest into Diana's death this month on the same day details of Diana's letter were published, Britain announced a top-level police probe whose findings would be revealed at the full inquest due next year.

Describing the crash, Mr Medjahdi said: "The car was slewing across the carriageway, a car which was completely out of control.

"But as I accelerated away, it hit the pillar. I heard a huge noise just like an explosion, boom boom, like a bomb going off. The front of the car exploded, disintegrated with pieces flying off in all directions."

He said there was no sign of paparazzi on motorbikes who had been chasing the couple, nor a mysterious white Fiat which some theorists say pushed the Mercedes into the pillar.

Royal commentators say British authorities will likely concur with their French counterparts that it was an accident.

Paris Match said Mr Medjahdi contacted police the next day after learning Diana had died in the crash.

It quoted him in the police report as saying the screeching of the car's tires was deafening and he briefly turned his head to look. "I estimate it was going at least 150 kph," he said.

His passenger, identified only as Souad, told police she turned around and saw the car hit the pillar.

"On impact, it lost a mechanical piece I could not identify," she said. "I saw very clearly how the driver's body got crushed against the steering wheel."

Neither saw any camera flashes but Mr Medjahdi recalled a motorcycle driven by a man with a woman passenger had passed him at high speed just before the car's brakes began to screech.

Mr Chevenement told Paris Match he was at the hospital when Diana was brought in: "She was in a coma but still alive. Her face was intact, it had not been disfigured. At that point, I could never have imagined it was that bad and she would lose her life a few hours later."