`Oh my God`, said dying Diana

Princess Diana repeatedly said "oh my God" as she lay beside her boyfriend Dodi Fayed in the crashed car in a Paris road tunnel in 1997, the inquest into their death heard Thursday.

The London probe into the couple's death also heard how a photographer shouted, "she's alive" and called to a colleague to come back to the wrecked vehicle.

"There was smoke emanating from the vehicle. I wanted to stop the battery but I couldn't," said Damian Dalby, who rushed to try to help the princess after the crash in the Pont d'Alma tunnel on August 30, 1997.