London: The ambulance driver, who rushed Diana to a hospital from the wreckage of her car that crashed in a Paris underpass ten years back, has denied suggestions that he drove deliberately slowly as part of a conspiracy to kill the Princess of Wales.

Michel Massebeuf told the 11-member jury at the Diana inquest via video-link from the French capital that his careful progression was "to protect the Princess of Wales", the media reported here today.

"For the rest of the journey, I drove smoothly at between 25 miles per hour and 31 miles per hour, under doctor's orders," the driver was quoted as saying.

Jurors also heard how a team of eight doctors at the Piti-Salptrire Hospital had battled for nearly two hours to keep the Princess alive after her heart stopped but were finally forced to accept defeat. Anaesthetist Daniel Eyraud told the inquest that despite administering massive doses of adrenaline, repeated electric shocks and extended heart massages, the medics failed to revive her following which she was pronounced dead.

"We decided by common consent to stop heart massage as it was completely impossible to restore cardiac activity after such a long period," Dr Eyraud said in a statement read out at the inquest.

Diana had been taken to Paris's Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital after being pulled from the wreckage of the Mercedes in the early hours of August 31,1997.

The jury was also shown a series of pixilated close-up paparazzi photographs of Diana's boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed being carried from the vehicle and laid out on the tarmac as the emergency services staff tried to restart his heart.

Source : PTI