'Princess Diana was not pregnant at the time of her death'

LONDON: Princess Diana was not pregnant when she died in a car accident in Paris nine years ago, the manager of the London mortuary, where her post-mortem was carried out, claimed.

Robert Thompson, who was present at the opening of the coffin and throughout the post-mortem examination on Diana, contradicts the conspiracy theories about an unborn child of the Princess of Wales.

The mortuary manager's assertion, in an up-coming TV documentary titled "Who Killed Diana" contradicts the conspiracy theory which claims the Princess was murdered on orders from British royal family because she was expecting her boyfriend's child.

"I saw no evidence of pregnancy exposed during the post-mortem procedure, and indeed the pathologist said that she was not pregnant," according to the excerpts from the documentary in the Times newspaper on Saturday.

"Drawing together what I heard and what I saw on that day in the post-mortem room -- the pathologist said to me, 'Well, she wasn't pregnant.' I saw no evidence of pregnancy within the body. My conclusion must be that she wasn't pregnant," he said.

He also denied that she was embalmed in France to hide evidence of a possible pregnancy.

Thomson said the embalming in France had not been complete, covering only the top half of the Princess's body, and had been done for cosmetic purposes.

The Princess died in August 1997 after the chauffeur Henri Paul lost control of the Mercedes car in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris. The Princess and Dodi Fayed were killed along with M Paul.