Twenty-five years later, Frederic Mailliez is still marked by what happened in the Alma Tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997 — and the realization that he was one of the last people to see Princess Diana alive.
FILE - Britain's Diana, Princess of Wales walks on the quay of the residence of Mohamed Al Fayed, in Saint Tropez, French Riviera, Sunday July 20, 1997. . The French doctor who treated her at the scene has recounted what happened. Dr. Frederic Mailliez told The Associated Press how he tried to save her on that night of Aug. 31, 1997. The woman was crumpled on the floor of a mangled Mercedes, unconscious and struggling to breathe.
As Britain and Diana’s admirers worldwide mark a quarter-century since her death, Mailliez recounted the aftermath of the crash. “I know it’s surprising, but I didn’t recognize Princess Diana,” he said. “I was in the car on the rear seat giving assistance. I realized she was very beautiful, but my attention was so focused on what I had to do to save her life, I didn’t have time to think, who was this woman.”
Mailliez said he had “no reproach” toward the photographers’ actions after the crash. “They didn’t hamper me having access to the victims. ... I didn’t ask them for help, but they didn’t interfere with my job.” The anniversary is stirring up those memories again, but they also come back “each time I drive through the Alma Tunnel,” he said.
Irinia Ouahvi, a 16-year-old Parisian visiting the flame, said she knows Diana through TikTok videos and through her mother.
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