As a police van carried the paparazzi away from the scene of Princess Diana's fatal car crash yesterday, one of the photographers hid his face in his hands, writes Lara Marlowe in Paris.
There was an ironic justice in his gesture; the paparazzi were no longer hunters but hunted. An angry passer-by even punched a photographer at the scene in the face and stomach. For once, the tabloids had turned down sensational photos: shots of the princess still trapped in the car - reported price tag £600,000 - found no takers last night.
While the Brigade Criminelle debated whether to charge four of the seven photographers still in custody with manslaughter, their colleagues continued to stalk the princess, even in death. At the PitieSalpetriere Hospital where her body waited to be identified by her ex-husband and two sisters, the photographers perched on top of vans, phone booths and bus stops. Photographers and TV crews paid local residents a going rate of £222 for the rental of their balconies.
The crowd surrounding the hospital was hostile. "Murderers," hospital patients and staff shouted at journalists who entered the hospital as part of the official media pool. "Clear off," several of the princess's fans muttered when they saw my notebook. To the consternation of the press, few seemed to distinguish between news journalists earning monthly salaries and paparazzi, who often receive $1 million for exclusive shots of famous people.
"I'm not a paparazzo," a French photographer working for the German magazine Bild protested, using the nonsensical Italian term for celebrity photographers coined in Fellini's film La Dolce Vita. "A paparazzo would try to get inside the hospital, try to photograph Diana's body."
The public displays of hostility were somewhat hypocritical. "We're all guilty," an estate agent who waited in the crowd outside the hospital admitted. "We're blaming the paparazzi, but we all read Paris Match and Voici [the French magazines which nearly every week published paparazzi photos of the princess]."
Daniel Angeli, a paparazzo who runs one of half-a-dozen agencies specialising in celebrity photos, earned fame and fortune with his pictures of Sarah Ferguson's financial adviser sucking her toes. A year ago, Belgian photographer Stephane Lisecki broke up Stephanie of Monaco's marriage by selling photos of her husband Daniel Ducruet making love to Miss Bare Breasts of Belgium.
Another paparazzo, Mario Brenna, has reportedly earned more than $3 million with his recent blurry photos of Diana and Dodi al-Fayed frolicking in the Mediterranean.
In their own defence, photographers yesterday said the accident had been caused by the Mercedes' excessive speed, not the presence of paparazzi. "Photographers don't have guns. They're not dangerous. There was no reason to go 180 k.p.h," Andre Gaudot, a photographer for Paris Match magazine, said.
"If photographers pursue someone, it is because they didn't want to pose or because they fled. Celebrities shouldn't flee so they don't have to be followed," said Julian Navarro, editor-in-chief of the Spanish magazine Semana.
Others pointed out that Princess Diana, like other celebrities, often wanted to be photographed. "The St Tropez photos [of Diana and Dodi] were very ambiguous," Cathy Nolan, of People Magazine in Paris said. "There was a widespread theory that she deliberately attracted the attention of photographers to upstage Camilla [ParkerBowles, the prince's lover] on her birthday."
Andrew Hamilton, Motoring Correspondent, adds: The Mercedes-Benz S-class is the flagship of the Mercedes car range and the 600 is the ultimate S-class model. In Ireland, it has a listed price of £128,070.
Compared with other luxury saloons, the 600 is regarded as gargantuan. It uses a V12 six-litre engine and has a kerb weight of 2190 k, almost twice that of a small family car such as the Ford Escort. With a length of over 17 feet it is one of the biggest cars on the road. Getting from 0 to 60 m.p.h. takes about six seconds.
In France, the car's occupants would have been required to wear seat belts. It is not clear if they did.