I thought Diana would live, says first doctor at the crash scene

The dramatic scene inside Princess Diana's death-crash Mercedes was described yesterday by the first doctor to arrive there.

Dr Frederic Mailliez said he had thought that the princess would survive her injuries.

"She was moaning, she was breathing but she was really weak ... I would say unconscious and weak,' he told the Diana inquest via videolink from Paris.

He added that the princess's face appeared unscarred. "I do not remember any injury on her forehead. I just remember a few drops of blood but I would not say a serious injury."

A medically-trained fire service chief who arrived soon afterwards, however, told the court that the princess's heart stopped as she was being freed from the wreckage and she had to be resuscitated.

Dr Mailliez had been driving through the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris when he saw the crashed car on the opposite carriageway. He stopped and ran across to the smoking wreck to see if he could help.

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"I remember the horn making a noise and I remember the front of the car was damaged, the engine almost cut in two parts," he told the jury.

He could immediately see that the driver Henri Paul was dead, as was Diana's lover Dodi Fayed.

Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was alive but very seriously injured in the front passenger seat.

"Obviously he was alive because he was screaming," he said.

"He was breathing ... he was alive but very severely injured."

In the the back seat was a woman whom he did not recognise.

He learned that she was the Princess of Wales only the next day when he saw the news.

Having worked for the fire brigade as an emergency doctor he was able to call the emergency services dispatch centre directly and give an initial medical assessment.

When the first ambulance arrived he handed over to the medical team and left with a friend who was waiting in his car.

During cross-examination Richard Keen QC, representing the family of Henri Paul, asked him: "Do you remember saying that you thought the lady you had treated would survive?"

He answered: "Yes, I said that."

But he was not aware of the extent of her internal injuries.

"I did not have any way to make any precise diagnosis," he said.

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"I did not have the equipment to take the blood pressure so my supposition of diagnosis was the head injury but I had to suspect something serious."

When asked by Michael Mansfield QC, representing Dodi's father Mohamed Al Fayed, he agreed that the Harrods owner's son's face had been 'peaceful'.

Sergeant Xavier Gourmelon was in charge of a medically trained fire service team which took over from Dr Mailliez.

Also via videolink, he described how he saw Diana in the back of the Mercedes. "She was conscious; she could speak to me."

He said he dealt personally with the princess.

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"It was first-aid treatment, to make sure her head was sitting in the right position so she would not be further injured, and we administered oxygen."

She was moving her arms around and he attempted to calm her down, the court heard.

But when staff were attempting to free Diana with a special board, her heart stopped.

"When we tried to get her out of the car to try and transfer her she suffered a cardiac arrest so we gave her heart massage right away and a very few seconds later she was resuscitated."

The hearing continues.