“I massaged her heart and a few seconds later she started breathing again. It was a relief of course, because as a first responder you want to save lives – and that’s what I thought I had done,” Gourmelon told The Sun.

He said he believed she would survive. “As far as I knew when she was in the ambulance, she was alive and I expected her to live. But I found out later she had died in hospital. It was very upsetting. I know now that there were serious internal injuries, but the whole episode is still very much in my mind.”

The firefighter admitted he only realised the identity of the woman he had tried to save once she was placed into the ambulance. “It was only when one of the paramedics told me that I learned it was Princess Diana,” he said.

Her death sent shockwaves across the globe. Tens of thousands gathered outside Kensington Palace to lay flowers, while her funeral service was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide. Even decades later, Diana remains remembered as the “People’s Princess,” her life and legacy continuing to resonate across generations.