A man who claimed he saw a blinding flash of light in a Paris road tunnel just before the car crash that killed Princess Diana spent hours on Tuesday answering questions about inconsistencies in statements he has made. The inquest is investigating the deaths of the princess and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, on August 31, 1997. Henri Paul, who was driving their Mercedes car, also died in the crash. Francois Levistre, whose testimony to the British inquest differed at key points from other witnesses, testified that he saw two men on a motorcycle ahead of the princess? car, a ?major flash of light,? and then a crash. Afterward, he said, the passenger on the motorcycle looked into the crumpled Mercedes and gave a gesture to indicate ?job done?.

Fayed?s father, Mohamed al Fayed, has claimed that a blinding flash of light may have been used by British agents to cause the accident in a plot orchestrated by Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. Levistre said he was driving through the tunnel as the incident unfolded, and then stopped at the end and watched through his rearview mirror. Questioned repeatedly about why he had told different stories to French police and an examining magistrate, said he hadn?t read the statements that he later signed. Earlier, three French witnesses said they had seen two cars enter the tunnel at speed, roughly side by side.

Two of those witnesses reported hearing two crashes, the second much louder than the first, inside the Pont d Alma tunnel shortly after midnight.