Paparazzi inquest decision stands

The French authorities have refused to force the crucial witnesses to tell their side of the story despite a high-level cross-Channel appeal.

Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker is powerless to compel the photographers to do so and told the inquest there was a risk of a legal challenge in France were they made to attend. The paparazzi have refused to take part with their lawyers arguing they have nothing new to add.

As the case continued at the High Court in London, the jury also heard how British experts are convinced the Princess's car did collide with a white Fiat Uno in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel.

The jury physically saw parts of the wrecked Mercedes for the first time as they were handed four bags of debris retrieved from the scene. One bag contained 55 pieces of clear plastic from the headlamp of the Mercedes itself while three other bags had a total of 21 red fragments from the rear light of a Fiat Uno made between May 1983 and September 1989 inside.

Scotland Yard senior collision investigator Anthony Read also told the jury that he believed the crash would have been "survivable" for Diana and Dodi had they been wearing seatbelts and observing the 50kph (31mph) limit. "I think you could almost guarantee its survivability," he said.

He added that it would have been "virtually impossible" for someone trying to cause such a crash deliberately to be sure of success.

Mr Read, who worked on the Metropolitan Police probe into the the Princess's death, and two other experts concluded that fragments of the smashed rear light of a 1980s Fiat Uno found at the scene of the tragedy and traces of white paint on the wreck of the Mercedes showed that the incident did indeed take place. The Fiat has never been conclusively traced.

The jury was also shown a photograph of a long white streak of paint on the mangled Mercedes.

Diana, her lover Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul were all killed when their car hit a pillar of the underpass in Paris on the morning of August 31, 1997.