LONDON: The driver of Britain's Princess Diana's car was apparently drunk on the night of her fatal crash in Paris, new DNA tests on blood samples have shown.
Tests have shown that Henri Paul, who was driving the car carrying Diana and her companion Dodi Al Fayed, was three times over the French drink-drive limit, the BBC reported here on Saturday.
French authorities carried out the tests within the past year, the BBC quoted a source close to the authorities as saying. A DNA profile that was taken from Paul's blood samples and compared with his parents' DNA matched, the source said.
Conspiracy theories had suggested that Paul's blood samples were swapped to portray him as a drunk in a cover-up of a secret service plot to murder Diana, it said.
The new evidence comes even as Lord Stevens of the Metropolitan Police, probing Diana's death in Paris in 1997, is expected to publish his report likely concluding that the fatal crash was an accident.
The Mercedes carrying Diana, 36, and Dodi Al Fayed, 42, crashed in a Paris underpass while reportedly escaping the French paparazzi.
The French police have concluded after two years of investigation that the crash was a tragic accident. They said Paul was found to be drunk and driving at excessive speed.
