Princess Diana’s last words, minutes before she died in appalling car crash

As the world marks Princess Diana’s 23rd death anniversary, the tragic accident that took her life is getting reflected upon by royal fans and critics.

Firefighter Xavier Gourmelon recalls how back on August 31, 1997, he had found a blonde woman sitting at the backseat of a car crash and had been entirely oblivious that it was a royal family member fighting for her life.

During an interview with The Sun, Gourmelon claimed that he didn’t believe that she was in any real danger as she was conscious and had her eyes wide open.

He went on to say that she was given some oxygen as he asked her to stay calm, recalling that there was no blood at all but a slight injury on her right shoulder which he deemed insignificant.

“My God, what’s happened?” Diana had asked the firefighter.

However, things took a tragic turn the very next second as she suffered a cardiac arrest. "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 I knew when she was in the ambulance she was alive and I expected her to live. But I found out later she had died in hospital. It was very upsetting,” he said further.

"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.”

"I 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 me it was her,” he said.

The princess had arrived at Pitié-Salpétrière Hospital and was rushed for surgery but unfortunately could not be saved.