LONDON (Reuter) - French prosecutors formally opened a criminal inquiry on suspicion of manslaughter against seven photographers held after the crash which killed Princess Diana, her companion Dodi Al Fayed and their driver. The inquiry also covers the suspicion of causing bodily harm and failing to assist accident victims. The possible manslaughter charges would apply to the deaths of Diana, Dodi Al Fayed and the driver while the possible bodily harm charge would cover the injuries sustained by the only survivor, her bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones. Charges of failing to assist accident victims could apply to photographers who snapped pictures rather than inform the police of the accident or who hampered rescuers` work. The luxury Mercedes-Benz carrying the Princess and Al Fayed crashed into a concrete pillar as it sped through a road tunnel early on Sunday in an apparent bid to shake off photographers pursuing the couple on motorcycles. Manslaughter and failing to assist accident victims are each punishable by up to five years in prison and 500,000-franc ($81,500) fines. The photographers were arrested at the scene of the fatal crash in a Paris road tunnel early on Sunday. Six were named as Frenchmen Christian Martinez of the Angeli agency, Romualdo Rat of Gamma, Jacques Langevin of Sygma, Serge Arnal of Stills, Nicolas Arsov of Sipa and Macedonian freelancer Laszlo Veres. The seventh, a motorcycle driver for Gamma, has not been publicly identified. Disclosures that the Princess`s driver had a "criminal" level of alcohol in his blood took some of the heat off the photographers, widely blamed for hounding the princess to her death. Judicial sources said a post-mortem test on driver Henri Paul showed he had about 1.70 grams of alcohol per litre of blood, more than three times the legal limit. Police sources said Paul, 41, was driving at "very high speed". But prosecutors denied widespread reports that the speedometer of the wrecked Mercedes-Benz was stuck on 196 kph (122 mph), almost four times the speed limit. It showed zero, they said. Rees-Jones, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, was in hospital and had not yet sufficiently recovered to be questioned by police. Police have seized motorcycles, cameras and films and searched the offices of several news agencies in search of pictures of the chase and crash. They are also looking for photographers who may have left the scene and escaped arrest. Frederic Maillez, who was the first doctor to arrive at the scene of the crash and who gave first aid to Diana, said he saw 10 to 15 photographers taking pictures of the car. At least two major tabloid newspapers said they had turned down offers of pictures of Diana in the wrecked car. The photographers` lawyers were buoyed by disclosure of the driver`s blood alcohol level and denounced what they said had become a witchhunt in which their clients were scapegoats. But Bernard Dartevelle, a lawyer for the Al Fayed family, said the photographers were responsible anyway, as their hounding of the couple during their French holiday had made security officials nervous and led to last-minute changes in routine. He said Paul, the deputy security chief of the Al Fayed-owned Ritz hotel in Paris, had been called in from home on the evening before the crash to drive Diana`s car while her regular driver drove in another direction in an attempt to lure the paparazzi away. Dartevelle, who has been instructed to launch a suit for damages against the photographers, also said a witness had seen one motorcycle zig-zagging in front of the Mercedes in an apparent attempt to try to slow it down just before the crash.

Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed were planning to marry, her Egyptian companion told a relative a few hours before they died in a Paris car crash, the relative was quoted on Tuesday as saying. The daily Asharq al-Awsat reported the comments by Hussein Yassin, brother of Al Fayed`s stepfather Anis Yassin who was married to his Saudi mother Samira. Yassin told the London-based newspaper he talked to Dodi at the Ritz hotel, owned by his father Mohamed Al Fayed, at 8.45 p.m. on Saturday, about four hours before their car crashed at high speed in a tunnel in central Paris. Yassin asked Al Fayed what was happening in the relationship with the Princess of Wales. "Dodi said that they were deeply in love and that the relationship was serious and they have decided to get married," it quoted Yassin as saying.

Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday it would call on Britain to observe a one-minute silence after the Westminster Abbey funeral service for Princess Diana this Saturday. People throughout Britain would be invited to show their respect in silent remembrance for the Princess before her coffin left the Abbey.