Distressing pictures of Diana, Princess of Wales, taken by paparazzi as she lay dying in the wreckage of a Mercedes in a Paris underpass were shown to the jury at her inquest.

Although the pictures had been electronically treated to obscure some of the detail, Diana’s distinctive blonde hair and the side of her face inside the car could be made out in some of the images.

Witnesses have told how photographers were on the scene within moments of the fatal crash, but were more interested in taking pictures than helping the dead and injured.

After the jury had been guided through the pictures by Inspector John Carpenter of the Metropolitan Police, Lord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner, declared that the most graphic images would not be released into the public domain.

The coroner said: “Although ordinarily everything that the jury hears and sees will go almost immediately on the inquest website, these photographs will not go on the website for the reason that it is possible for photographs that have been pixelated [electronically blurred] to be unpixelated if they get intoin certain hands.” One picture appeared to show Diana on the floor in the back of the car with one leg raised. Another showed Romuald Rat, a paparazzo, squatting down next to the open door of the car moments after the crash.

Other pictures, with some detail pixelated, showed emergency workers carrying a slumped but unidentified figure away from the car.

Another image shows Frederic Mailliez, the duty emergency doctor, tending to Diana in the back of the car, although her face had been deliberately blurred.

Most of the paparazzi images came from the negatives seized by French police after the crash. Mr Carpenter told the jury that pictures of Dr Mailliez had been taken by Fabrice Chassery, a paparazzo. “The pixelated images are of the Princess of Wales, and that’s what he was photographing.”

Michael Mansfield, QC, representing Mohamed Al Fayed, said to Mr Carpenter: “It is perfectly clear from the photographs the jury has been through that the paparazzi who were present at the scene of the crash had no compunction about taking photographs of the victims both inside the car and being carried outside the car.”

Mr Carpenter replied: “None whatsoever.”

The hearing continues on Monday.

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