Princess Diana Hurt in Car Crash; Friend Killed

Britain’s Princess Diana was seriously injured and her companion, Harrods heir Dodi Fayed, was killed early today when their car crashed in a tunnel in Paris, apparently while being chased by photographers on a motorcycle, French police said.

There was no immediate word on Diana’s condition, but police and hospital officials said she had been taken for emergency treatment to a Paris public hospital. The chauffeur driving Diana, 36, also died in the crash, and the fourth person in the car, one of her bodyguards, was also injured and hospitalized after being cut from the wreckage, police said.

The accident occurred in a two-lane tunnel at Place de l’Alma across from the Eiffel Tower in the capital’s 8th Arrondissement shortly after midnight Saturday, police said. Police cars and vans with flashing lights filled the site outside the tunnel, and officers kept spectators away.

It was not immediately clear if other vehicles were involved in the crash, which occurred where the high-speed road parallels the River Seine. One report said the car was driven by a chauffeur from the Hotel Ritz in Paris, which is owned by the Fayed family.

“Princess Diana has had a traffic accident in Paris. She is seriously injured,” a police spokesman said. “Dodi al Fayed is dead.” Buckingham Palace said it was working to establish details.

“It has not been confirmed to us officially, but it seems there has been an accident,” a spokesman there said. The French news agency Agence France-Presse said the accident occurred while the car in which Diana was riding was being chased by photographers, but there was no confirmation of that. On Friday, British newspapers had printed photographs of Diana and Fayed in the sea in southern France.

Diana, perhaps the world’s most photographed woman, is divorced from Prince Charles, Britain’s future king, and is the mother of their sons, Princes William and Harry. She was to have returned to London today. A leading campaigner against land mines, Diana had returned to Britain last week from a visit abroad but left almost immediately to join Egyptian playboy Fayed, 41-year-old scion of the family that owns Harrods department store in London, on their third vacation together in five weeks.

Diana’s sons accompanied her on one cruise aboard a Fayed yacht. The princess, who said she wanted to become Britain’s “queen of hearts” when divorce cost her any chance of being queen alongside the future king, is followed by photographers wherever she goes.

Fayed, whose father, Mohammed Fayed, is one of Britain’s best-known and most controversial entrepreneurs, was the first boyfriend of Diana’s identified by the British press since last year’s divorce.

“We relaxed. . . . We had a good time,” Fayed said after returning from one break with Diana. “We are very good friends.”

According to British newspapers, Diana first met Fayed almost 10 years ago when he and Charles played polo on opposing teams. Films he has produced or co-produced include the 1981 Oscar-winning “Chariots of Fire,” “The World According to Garp,” “F/X” and “Hook.”

Himself a multimillionaire, Dodi Fayed had homes in London, New York, Los Angeles and Switzerland, as well as a garage full of luxury cars. His 1994 marriage lasted just eight months.

Earlier this month, model Kelly Fisher, flashing a glittering sapphire and diamond ring, filed a lawsuit against Fayed alleging breach of contract. The suit contends that Fayed offered Fisher $500,000 to scale back her modeling career in America and move to Paris so she could spend more time with him. Fayed told her his family was embarrassed that his fiancee worked, the suit claims.

In Edgartown, Mass., President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, were informed of the car accident and were very concerned, the White House said Saturday.

“Both the president and the first lady are very concerned and asked to be kept up to date on the situation,” spokesman Joe Lockhart said. The Clintons are vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard.