Get our daily royal round-up direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A driver allegedly involved in a collision with Princess Diana's car moments before she was killed in a horror crash claims he was told not to talk about the accident.

Speaking for the first time, Le Van Thanh claims his Fiat Uno collided with the Princess of Wales' Mercedes before it hit a pillar in a Paris tunnel's central reservation.

The smash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel killed Diana, her partner Dodi Fayed and his driver Henri Paul on August 31, 1997.

Vietnamese-born Van Thanh claims British police asked him to come to the UK to give a statement about the crash, but some French officers told him: "Don't go there."

His claims have sparked calls for the investigation into Diana’s death to be reopened as a cold case.

(Image: dailystar.co.uk)

The Paris bodybuilder and chauffeur told a team writing a book about the crash that he would speak to Met Police officers if they approached him, the Daily Star Sunday reported.

After being told that UK investigators wanted to interview him, he said: “I know they will come. Several times they told me they would come back.

“Because eventually they told me, ‘Yes, they will come’. They wanted me to go to England.

(Image: Getty)

You know what the French police told me? ‘It’s not the same law as in France, don’t go there. Don’t go there’. He told me, ‘It’s not the same law as in France, don’t go there…don’t go there (to England)’.”

In 2006, Van Thanh’s father claimed that his son had his Uno car repaired and resprayed shortly after the crash.

French police questioned Van Thanh, then a 22-year-old taxi driver, after investigators concluded white paint on his vehicle matched that found on the wreckage of the Mercedes.

He gave a statement to an inquest denying he was the driver of the Fiat which fled the scene.

(Image: Tim Graham Photo Library via Get)

Twenty years on, he has claimed he did not come to the UK to give a statement to British police because French police had told him not to as they questioned him.

In response to his father's claim that the white Fiat was repainted red, Van Thanh, speaking through a translator, said: “The police report – they know why I repainted it. When you have no money and you have a damaged old car, what do you do?”

He said he felt “exonerated” and “innocent” over claims he was involved in Diana’s death.

Lord Stevens, the former Met Police commissioner who oversaw Operation Paget, the inquiry into conspiracy theories surrounding the crash, said in 2017 that investigators do not blame Van Thanh for the accident.

His Paget report said the Fiat was involved but was not the cause of the crash.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

Journalists who spoke to Van Thanh have put out a podcast and book, both called Diana: Case Solved.

Michael Mansfield QC, who represented Dodi’s father Mohamed Al-Fayed at Diana’s inquest, told the journalists: “There is a real question mark here because the French authorities were particularly anxious to ensure that it was blamed to the paparazzi.

“That's why they were all arrested to begin with. He (Le Van Thanh) had the car resprayed. It is very suspicious.

"The Mercedes obviously did hit the Fiat.

“Whether that was an accident by the driver driving too fast into the tunnel or whether the Fiat Uno was in the wrong lane, I can’t take it beyond that.”

Former BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole said the journalists' interview with Van Thanh should be passed to British and French authorities as part of a formal request to reopen the Diana inquest as a cold case.

He added: “As a matter of urgency, this information should be conveyed to an officer of the court.