Police chief reveals moment she found Princess Diana’s pearls in wreckage of fatal Paris car crash

Former head of Brigade Criminelle speaks about finding ‘little clues’ to what happened in French tunnel

A new documentary looks into the police investigations that followed the car crash that killed Princess Diana (Getty Images)

A French police chief has spoken about the moment she found Princess Diana’s pearls at the scene of the Paris car crash which killed the royal.

Martine Monteil was one of the first to head to the tunnel where the collision happened in 1997.

The former head of the Brigade Criminelle told a new documentary investigators found “little clues” that pointed towards about what had happened.

“We saw signs of braking. Pieces of red light from another car. On the side of the car there were traces of paint,” she said.

“I was obsessed with finding things because it’s important.”

Ms Monteil added: “I even found some tiny pearls. They belonged to the princess.”

The Princess of Wales died in a car crash in in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in the French capital in August 1997. Her partner, Dodi Al-Fayed, and the driver, Henri Paul, were also killed.

Paul was deemed to be under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs and a 2008 inquest found Diana was unlawfully killed as a result of “grossly negligent” driving.

Martine Monteil was one of the first on the scene of the Paris car crash involving Princess Diana (AFP via Getty Images)

The new Channel 4 documentary, Investigating Diana: Death In Paris, explores the police investigations that followed the crash.

It also claims a note which claimed Diana discussed dying in a staged car crash was not passed onto French authorities until six years after the fatal collision.

The four-part series has already aired in the US and will be broadcast in the UK on Channel 4 at 9pm on Sunday.