Jury visits crash site

The British jurors hearing the inquest into Princess Diana's death went to Paris yesterday to see at first hand where she died in a high-speed car crash 10-years ago with her lover Dodi al-Fayed.

The court, "sitting" in extraordinary session for two days in France, retraced the last movements of the ill-fated couple - from the Ritz Hotel where they spent their final evening together to the crash scene in the Alma underpass.

The 11-strong jury accompanied by Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker travelled the short distance between the two sites on a bus, a French magistrate overseeing the visit said.

Princess Diana and Mr al-Fayed died shortly after midnight on August 31, 1997 when their driver lost control of their Mercedes limousine in the Alma tunnel, and the jury was due to repeat the trip after dark to get a better feeling for events.

Judge Baker, fearful that the court's Paris visit could provoke the same paparazzi hysteria that greeted the world's most photographed woman when she was alive, has pleaded for media restraint and respect for the jury's privacy.

The jury of six women and five men and court staff were flown to Paris on a private jet with news organisations instructed not to reveal where they were staying.

The trip was planned to give the group a clear idea of all the relevant locations and they were also due to visit the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital, where Princess Diana died.