Speed of princess's car `almost supersonic'

The first person to arrive at the scene of the car crash that killed Princess Diana said the behaviour of photographers there…

The first person to arrive at the scene of the car crash that killed Princess Diana said the behaviour of photographers there was "unbelievable" and "the cameras were going like machine guns".

Mr Stephane Darmon also told the Guardian that the speed of the car in which the princess had been travelling was "almost supersonic" and he was still haunted by what he had seen that August night in Paris.

The Guardian published Mr Darmon's account yesterday as the family of Princess Diana's companion, Mr Dodi Fayed, who also was killed in the crash, denounced an unflattering portrait of him in Vanity Fair magazine.

The London department store, Harrods, which is owned by Mr Fayed's father, Mr Mohamed Al Fayed, said the Vanity Fair piece was "particularly cruel". The article portrayed Mr Dodi Fayed as an insecure "man-child" and womaniser who had dabbled in drugs and was in debt when he died.

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The piece, by Sally Bedell Smith, quoted one unnamed friend as saying Mr Fayed in the 1980s used to buy a kilo of cocaine a week, although he bought more for others than himself.

It said that by 1997 "the lawsuits were piling up" against Mr Fayed, including claims for back taxes and rent, and that he had a reputation for reneging on commitments and was fanatically concerned with his personal security.

The Harrods statement denied that Mr Fayed was ever connected with drugs and called the piece "a tawdry exploitation of a man who is not here to defend himself".