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The final hours before the death of a princess

Diana, 36, was divorced from Prince Charles, heir to the British throne and the father of her two sons, for slightly more than a year.

She had been romantically linked to Dodi Fayed, the 42-year-old son of the Egyptian millionaire and Harrods magnate Mohamed Al Fayed, for more than a month; the tabloid press was already talking about a possible wedding.

In addition to a few press photographers, tipped off by colleagues on the Italian island, the couple were greeted at the airport only by Dodi's 29-year-old bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, and by Henri Paul, 41, the deputy head of security at the Ritz, the exclusive Paris hotel owned by Dodi's father. Because Diana was considered on a private visit in France, she had no official protection.

Paul drove the group to the Ritz, after which they spent the afternoon shopping in central Paris, where Dodi notably purchased a ring.

An initial booking for a restaurant was cancelled, and the couple dined at the Ritz.

Paul, meanwhile, was no longer on duty and had a few drinks at the hotel, before later going to Harry's Bar, the celebrated American bar not far from the Ritz, then to another cafe in central Paris.

At around 10:00 pm, Paul received a call on his mobile phone, asking him to return to the Ritz and help smuggle the couple from the hotel to Dodi's private home in western Paris, if possible avoiding the photographers staking out the princess.

The investigation later showed that the driver had 1.75 grammes of alcohol per 1,000 grammes of blood - well over the legal limit - and had taken anti-depressant drugs.

The plan to smuggle Diana and Dodi from the hotel involved using Dodi's own driver as a decoy to attract the photographers, with the couple then leaving discreetly with Paul.

Some of the paparazzi were taken in by the ploy, but several worked out that the couple were in fact in Paul's Mercedes, which set out at high speed on the short drive to the house, near the Champs-Elysees avenue.

The only member of the party who was known to have attached his seat-belt, and who therefore survived the ensuing crash, was Dodi's bodyguard Rees-Jones, who was in the front passenger seat.

"You can't catch me," Paul was reported to have boasted, a remark directed at the pursuing photographers.

At 26 minutes past midnight, after running through a red light on the central Place de la Concorde, the Mercedes went out of control at high speed and crashed into a supporting pillar in an underpass on Paris's Right Bank expressway. Skid marks ran for 20 meters (65 feet).

The driver was killed instantly, Dodi died as the emergency services arrived and the princess was declared dead in a Paris hospital at 4:00 am.