BEIJING, Oct. 23 -- An eyewitness of Princess Diana's car crash accounted to jurors at the inquest into her death how a motorcycle following close behind Diana's Mercedes swerved to avoid the car as it crashed, media reported Tuesday.

       The statement of the eyewitness, Grigori Rassinier, was read on his behalf to the jury sitting at the High Court in London.

       Rassinier, a French motorist, said he was driving through the Pont d'Alma tunnel in the opposite direction when the accident occurred. High Court judge Scott Baker, British investigators into the death of Princess Diana, and jurors hearing the case set to retrace her final ill-fated journey, visit the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris Oct. 8, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Pho

       He saw the motorcycle emerge from the smoke which engulfed the underpass, and quickly leave the scene without stopping.

       He also saw the princess crushed against the front seat with her hand raised.

       "The interior light of the crashed car was on. As result I could see two heads in the back of the car," he said in the statement.

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

       He told how he saw just one person dressed in beige on the motorcycle.

       He said he believed the motorcycle had been following the Mercedes closely, but not so close that it was caught up in the accident.

       Diana, ex-wife of heir to the throne Prince Charles, and her Egyptian lover Dodi Fayed were killed, along with driver Henri Paul, following the crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997.

       Fayed's father Mohamed Al-Fayed, the tycoon owner of London's upscale Harrods department store, believes they were killed in a plot.

       The inquest, which is now entering its fourth week, must decide whether the car crash was an accident or murder.