Photographer Thierry Orban said he was home in Paris when he received a call from his chief editor asking him to go to the hotel specifically because news was expected, The Scotsman reported.

"He told me that there were rumors of an announcement that Lady Diana was getting married or having a baby and asked me to go to the Ritz Hotel," he said in a statement read to the inquest panel.

Meanwhile, a key witness to the crash that killed the princess of Wales and Fayed. failed to appear at the couple's inquest.

The Times of London said Souad Moufakkir is one of only two witnesses who claim to have seen the 1997 crash in a Paris underpass. She was supposed to appear in a Paris courthouse to give evidence over a video link, the newspaper said Wednesday.

Lord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner, has asked French officials to track her down.

Moufakkir told French police shortly after the crash that she saw the accident in the Alma tunnel.