Firefighter who heard Princess Diana’s final words thought he had saved her life

Xavier Gourmelin, a hero firefighter, has spoken out about the night he heard Princess Diana's final words and gave her CPR moments after her fatal Paris car crash.

Xavier, who spent 22 years as a Paris firefighter before returning to his native Brittany, has only spoken in public about the crash once before, during Diana's inquest in 2007.

Now, 20 years on from the August 1997 tragedy, he has given his first newspaper interview.

Xavier had no idea he was treating the princess at the crash scene inside the Pont de l'Alma tunnel, close to the Malheur fire station where he was duty officer.

He said, “We were very close to there and it took less than three minutes to reach it.

My 10-man team was in two trucks and we were first to arrive.

The car was in a mess and we just dealt with it like any road accident.

We got straight to work to see who needed help and who was alive.”

Diana said to Xavier, “My God, what's happened?”

The woman, who he later found out was Princess Diana, was on the floor in the back.

She was moving very slightly and he could see she was alive.

He could see she had a slight injury to her right shoulder but, other than that, there was nothing significant.

There was no blood on her at all.

Xavier held her hand and told her to be calm and keep still.

He said he was there to help and reassured her.

She said again, “My God, what's happened?”

Xavier gave her some oxygen and his team stayed by her side as she was taken out of the car.

It was very quick because they didn't have to cut any of the wreckage, but moments later the stricken princess stopped breathing.

Xavier said, “We are all trained to give first aid and I saw that she suffered a cardiac arrest and stopped breathing.

I massaged her heart and a few seconds later she started breathing again.

It was a relief of course because, as a first responder, you want to save lives, and that's what I thought I had done.

To be honest I thought she would live.”

As far as Xavier knew when she was in the ambulance she was alive and he expected her to live, but he found out later she had died in hospital.

He said, “It was very upsetting.

I know now that there were serious internal injuries, but the whole episode is still very much in my mind, and the memory of that night will stay with me forever.”

He had no idea then that it was Princess Diana.

It was only when she had been put into the ambulance that one of the paramedics told him it was her.

He was so shocked.

He knew who she was, but didn't follow British royalty closely.

Mum of two Diana died in the crash with lover Dodi Fayyad and driver Henry Paul.

Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived and is now 49.

Xavier said, “As a fireman you are part of the French military so you are forbidden to talk.

Now I have left the fire service I felt it was ok. For me this was simply a banal traffic accident, one of many that emergency services have to deal with and it was the usual causes, speed and a drunk driver.

When I got to the car I could see the driver was already dead and there was nothing that could be done for him.

Mr. Fayyad was in the back and in a bad condition, he had a cardiac arrest in the car and when he was taken out he was declared dead by a paramedic.

The bodyguard in the front was conscious, but he was trapped and had very severe facial injuries, he kept asking for the princess, saying, where is she, where is she?

But my team told him to keep calm and not speak.

I told him that none of my men spoke English so it was better for him to keep still and not move.

I told him not to worry we were looking after everyone.”

After Diana was taken to the city's Pity Salpatrier hospital, Xavier returned to the nearby fire station, where he was working a double weekend shift.

He recalled how he immediately rang home to tell his wife what had happened.

Xavier said, “She was asleep and I told her about the accident and Princess Diana.

I said that she had suffered a cardiac arrest but I've managed to revive her.”

An official report said the princess had suffered massive internal injuries and a ruptured blood vessel next to her heart which was causing internal bleeding.