Xavier Gourmelon heard Princess Diana's last words following the crash
Xavier Gourmelon, a firefighter who tried to save Princess Diana's life, has opened up about the tragic accident where the Princess lost her life. The dad-of-two appeared on and said of the late royal: "Nobody knew it was her, no-one had recognised her. As I approached, there was a blonde person sitting on the floor, she regained consciousness and looked at me and said, 'oh my god what's happened?'"
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Xavier spoke about helping Princess Diana
He added: "[She was] a bit agitated, I tried to calm her down and tell her we'd look after her and she fell into a coma again. We took her out of the car, put her on a stretcher. At that moment the doctor said she was in cardiac arrest so we gave her CPR and after 20 seconds she regained consciousness. It was ordinary in terms of our involvement as firefighters - it was extraordinary because of the person involved but otherwise an accident like any other." When the firefighter was asked about the paparazzi present on the scene, he said: "When I arrived there was no-one around the car," despite reports that the photographers who had followed Diana into the tunnel had taken photos of her after the accident.
Prince Harry opened up about her death in the BBC documentary, Diana, 7 Days, and admitted the paparazzi's role in her death was the "hardest part" to come to terms with. "The people that chased her into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was still dying on the backseat of the car," he said. "William and I know that, we've been told that numerous times by people who know that was the case. She'd had quite a severe head injury but she was still very much alive on the backseat and those people that caused the accident, instead of helping, took photographs of her dying on the backseat."
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