'Motorbike raced from Diana crash'

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Jurors at the inquest into the death of Princess Diana have heard an eyewitness account of how a motorcycle raced from the scene of the fatal car crash that killed the British royal and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, in 1997.

In a statement read out to the London court, French motorist Grigori Rassinier described how he had been travelling in the opposite direction through Paris' Pont de l'Alma tunnel on the night the accident occurred.

Rassinier said he watched a motorbike emerge from the smoke which engulfed the underpass before speeding away without stopping, the UK's Press Association reported.

"Immediately afterwards I heard a hooter followed by the sound of braking and then saw a motorbike emerge from the smoke," Rassinier said.

"It swerved as if it were avoiding the crashed car... This motorcycle left very quickly after having executed the swerve... It seems improbable that the motorcycle stopped before setting off again. I think that the motorcycle simply had time to slow down or to brake very hard."

Rassinier said he could see two heads in the back of the Princess' Mercedes, which he described as "juddering" in the aftermath of the accident as smoke billowed from the front of the car.

Diana was crushed against the front seat with her hand raised, Rassinier said.

The inquest, which is now entering its fourth week, must decide whether the deaths of Diana, Fayed and their driver Henri Paul on August 31, 1997 were an accident or murder. The inquiry is expected to last six months. E-mail to a friend

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