Dying Diana image seen in documentary

A paparazzi photograph of a dying Princess Diana taken moments after the Mercedes in which she and Dodi Fayed were travelling crashed in a Paris tunnel is to be screened for the first time in a documentary about the crash.

The image is in the documentary Unlawful Killing, which will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival this week, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.

It is produced by actor Keith Allen and Mohammed Al Fayed, Dodi's father.

The Mail says the image is black and white. It shows Diana’s features but has never been seen in Britain.

Similar pictures were shown to the Diana inquest jury but were pixelated.

The film will be shown around the world but not in Britain.

Writing in The Guardian newspaper, Allen said: "...British lawyers insisted on 87 cuts before any UK release could be contemplated. So rather than butcher the film, or risk legal action, we're showing it in France, then the US, and everywhere except the UK. Pity, because at a time when the mindless sugar rush of the royal wedding has been sending British Rrepublicans into a diabetic coma, it could act as a welcome antidote."

A jury in the 2008 inquest into Diana's death found that the paparazzi photographers who chased her from her hotel through the Paris streets were to blame for her "unlawful killing".

They also found that her driver, Henri Paul, was culpable for driving while three times over the drink-drive limit.

In his article in The Guardian Allen says: "Unlawful Killing is not about a conspiracy before the crash, but a provable conspiracy after the crash.

"A conspiracy organised not by a single scheming arch-fiend, but collectively by the British establishment – judges, lawyers, politicians, police chiefs, secret services, even newspaper editors – all of whom have been appointed to their positions because they are "a safe pair of hands".

"Just as compass needles all point north without being told to, so these people instinctively know what is expected of them when the state's interests are under threat and they act accordingly, quietly suppressing uncomfortable evidence or undermining the credibility of witnesses whose evidence contradicts the official narrative."

Allen’s film is due to be screened on Friday.

Mr Fayed has previously accused Prince Philip of masterminding the 1997 crash in which Diana and Dodi died and even suggested Prince Charles was involved.

He alleged the death plot took place to stop the princess marrying his Muslim son, the Daily Mail said.