An elegant dinner at the Ritz in Paris. A post-midnight drive past the city's floodlit treasures. And then, tragedy. The story of Princess Diana's death at age 36 in that catastrophic crash in a Paris traffic tunnel continues to shock, even after a quarter-century.
Twenty-five years later, The Associated Press is making available this account of Diana's final hours in the French capital, published on Sept. 5, 1997, a few days after the Aug. 31 crash. (The account, based on reporting, interviews and news reports available at the time, has been trimmed and edited lightly.)
