Conflicting reports over Diana's fatal car journey

The Cabinet Office has released a series of papers containing conflicting reports of why Diana, Princess of Wales, was in the car in which she died.

The papers, which have been released under the Freedom of Information Act, disagree on whether the Princess and Dodi Al Fayed was travelling in the Mercedes, which crashed in Paris, in order to avoid paparazzi or because the car she was due to travel in failed to start.

A memo, which was sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair on the day that Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed died, said that the couple had been "immediately subject to media attention" when they arrived at the Paris Ritz and that they had been "surrounded by a number of journalists". The report said: "They tried to leave quickly but the first hire car failed to start. The second car then left the hotel at speed. It travelled along a stretch of the river and entered the tunnel in which the car crashed."

The identity of the person who wrote the memo was not revealed in the papers.

Another memo that was sent to then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who was in Singapore at the time, by Sir Michael Jay, then ambassador to France, at the same time, also contained the same version of events. This statement said: the couple left the Ritz in a different car "because, apparently, their getaway car failed to start, they got into another car driven by a Ritz driver".

Driver Henri Paul, who was three times over the legal alcohol limit also died in the crash. The only survivor was Mr Al Fayed's British bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones.

However, another memo, again sent from Sir Michael this time to the Foreign Office on September 23, gave the explanation for the change of car as "a last minute change of plan aimed at diverting waiting paparazzi".

The papers also included a letter which contained a warning from Mr Blair to government ministers, warning them to "avoid engaging in activities which could result in political controversy" as the country mourned the much-loved Princess.

Other memos released by the Cabinet Office also revealed concerns over the funeral expenses estimated in one memo at around £5 million, another document from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport warned that the department had "no financial cover" for the funeral.

(KMcA/SP)