Friday September 5 6:56 AM EDT 

Report: Diana Briefly Conscious After Crash

By Francois Raitberger 

PARIS (Reuter) - Princess Diana briefly regained consciousness and
spoke after the car crash in Paris that killed her companion Dodi Al
Fayed and the driver outright, a press report said Friday. 

The newspaper Le Parisien Libere said the emergency medical team
called to the scene of Sunday's accident, in a riverside underpass, said
Diana was conscious and said a few words. 

The newspaper said she was confused and agitated. It did not say what
she said, 

The first person to treat Diana, an off-duty doctor who happened to
drive by before the emergency team arrived, has said she was
unconscious, moaning and gesturing in every direction. 

While other rescuers vainly tried to revive Al Fayed and the driver
and extricated bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones from the tangle of
metal, the emergency team anaesthetised Diana and took her to
hospital. She was pronounced dead more than three hours later. 

French police were questioning three photographers in a possible
prelude to adding them to seven other paparazzi being investigated for
manslaughter over their possible role in the crash. 

The three, aware they were sought by police because they had been at
the scene of the crash, turned themselves in on Thursday. They may
be held until Saturday before being released or handed over to
investigating judge Herve Stephan. 

Herve formally placed six other photographers and a picture agency
motorcyclist under investigation Tuesday on suspicion of
manslaughter and failing to help people in danger. 

Police were looking for more photographers who may have fled before
police detained their colleagues. Witnesses spoke of up to 15
photographers at the scene. 

The director of the LS Diffusion pictures agency said he had pictures
of the crash scene and sold them by telephone to various big media
outlets until deciding to withhold them when Diana's death was
announced. 

Suspicions that hounding by paparazzi on motorcycles played a role in
the crash were bolstered by a man who said he saw a motorcycle
swerve in front of Diana's black Mercedes car just before it slammed
at high speed into a concrete post. 

If ever tried, the photographers risk up to five years in jail.
Investigators are likely to spend months, perhaps years, dissecting
how much blame if any can be laid at the door of the paparazzi, and
how much the car's speed and the driver's high blood alcohol level
were to blame. 

Police have widened their investigation to employees of the Ritz
Hotel, where Diana ate her last dinner and which gave her a driver
who was far over the drink drive limit. 

A judicial source said police had begun routine questioning of
employees of the hotel, owned by Al Fayed's multi-millionaire father
Mohamed who also owns London's Harrods department store. 

The Ritz had no immediate comment. Police said that they had not
ruled out a possibility that the Ritz or its employees might be made a
formal target of the investigation. 

Photographers have said they were far behind the Mercedes when it
crashed, but Al Fayed's lawyers argue it would not have been speeding
if the posse of paparazzi had not been in pursuit. 

Backing up Al Fayed's case, a man who said he was driving just ahead
of Diana's car told Reuters that a swerving motorcycle carrying two
people may have put off the driver. 

"In my rear-view mirror, I saw the car in the middle of the tunnel
with the motorcycle on its left, pulling ahead and then swerving to the
right directly in front of the car," Francois Levi said from his home in
the Normandy port of Rouen. 

"As the motorcycle swerved and before the car lost control, there was
a flash of light but then I was out of the tunnel and heard, but did not
see the impact," he said late Thursday. 

He said he did not know if the flash was from a camera. 

Le Parisien's crime correspondent said films seized by police from the
paparazzi showed Diana and Al Fayed in the car gesturing and
irritated, and Rees-Jones lowering the sun visor apparently to avoid
being blinded by camera flashes. 

It was not clear how long before the accident the pictures were taken.
Paparazzi have said they caught up with the car when it stopped at a
traffic light minutes before the crash. 

Investigators have also been poring over telephone records to see
whether the paparazzi on the scene tried to help the victims by calling
the police or giving first aid. A French law obliges onlookers to help
people in danger. 

Some witnesses have said they shoved aside rescue workers or police
to get pictures.