A firefighter who responded to the car crash that claimed Princess Diana’s life 27 years ago has shared details about her final words.
On this day, August 31, in 1997, a car crash in Paris led to the death of Princess Diana.
It’s one of the most well-known events in history, as she was in a car speeding away from a hotel while being chased by paparazzi.
The car was driven by Henri Paul, the deputy head of security at the Ritz Paris, who was later found to have been nearly four times over the legal alcohol limit.
Also in the vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz S 280 Saloon, were Diana’s partner, Dodi Fayed, and her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones.
The car, while being pursued, crashed into the Pont de l’Alma tunnel. Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed were pronounced dead at the scene.
Princess Diana was pronounced dead later at the hospital, while Trevor Rees-Jones survived the crash despite suffering multiple serious injuries.
After the horrific crash, emergency services rushed to the scene, including firefighter Xavier Gourmelon, who heard Princess Diana’s final words.
In an interview with Good Morning Britain on the 20th anniversary of her death, the firefighter shared that he was present and heard Princess Diana’s final words.
He recounted, “She looked at me and said, ‘Oh my God, what’s happened?’”
He added, “I tried to calm her down and tell her we’d look after her, and then she fell into a coma again.”
Gourmelon said that when they were responding to the crash, they didn’t initially know who was in the car, and he didn’t recognize that it was Princess Diana speaking to him.
He described her as ‘agitated’ at first before she lost consciousness again.
At that point, she was still trapped in the wreckage of the car, and when they removed her from the vehicle, she went into cardiac arrest.
He said, “At that moment, the doctor said she was in cardiac arrest. We performed CPR, and after 20 seconds, she regained consciousness. We then transferred her to the ambulance.”
The firefighter said he couldn’t see any visible injuries on her body and believed she would make a full recovery if she could be taken to the hospital.
However, she passed away after experiencing another cardiac arrest in the hospital, which could not be successfully resuscitated.
A French investigation into the crash attributed the blame to Henri Paul, while a British inquest concluded that the deaths resulted from unlawful killing due to grossly negligent driving by Paul and the paparazzi trailing them.
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