'Oh my God', said dying Diana

LONDON: Princess Diana repeatedly said "Oh my God" as she lay beside her boyfriend Dodi Fayed in the crashed car in a Paris road tunnel in 1997, the inquest into their death heard.

The London probe into the couple's death also heard how a photographer shouted, "she's alive" and called to a colleague to come back to the wrecked vehicle.

"There was smoke emanating from the vehicle. I wanted to stop the battery but I couldn't," said Damian Dalby, who rushed to try to help the princess after the crash in the Pont d'Alma tunnel on August 30, 1997.

Speaking by video link from Paris, he was asked by a lawyer: "Was it right the lady in the car was trying to speak?"

"Yes, she was saying 'oh my God, oh my God'," he said.

Diana, ex-wife of heir to the throne Prince Charles, was killed alongside Fayed and their chauffeur Henri Paul in the high speed car crash.

A previous witness at the London inquest told how Diana was thrown into the footwell in the back of the Mercedes by the impact, with Fayed's body obscuring her from view from outside the car.

Fayed's father Mohamed Al-Fayed, owner of London's upscale Harrods department store, believes they were killed in a plot hatched by Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, and the British security services.

One of the photographers who gathered at the crash scene, after following Diana's vehicle from the Ritz hotel, was said to have confirmed that the princess was alive.

"We saw smoke coming from the tunnel. We cold see the damaged car. Damian Dalby went over to try and give first aid," said Sebastien Masseron, who was travelling to Paris with some friends when they came across the crash.