British police probe new Diana death information

Police say this is not a re-investigation of their previous probe into the crash.

LONDON: British police said Saturday that they were examining recently received information relating to the 1997 death of Diana, princess of Wales.

London's Metropolitan Police said it was checking the credibility of new information about the deaths of the princess and her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed.

They were killed in a car crash in Paris in the early hours of August 31, 1997, along with their driver, Henri Paul.

"The Metropolitan Police Service is scoping information that has recently been received in relation to the deaths and assessing its relevance and credibility," it said in a statement.

"The assessment will be carried out by officers from the specialist crime and operations command.

"This is not a re-investigation and does not come under Operation Paget."

Paget was the police inquiry into the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the crash. It concluded that all the allegations it assessed were without foundation.

Scotland Yard said they were not prepared to discuss the matter further.

Diana's boyfriend Fayed - the son of Egyptian tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed - and their driver Paul - the deputy head of security at Al-Fayed's Hotel Ritz in Paris - were pronounced dead at the scene.

Diana, the ex-wife of Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and the mother of Princes William and Harry, died later in hospital.

Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Al-Fayed family's protection team, survived. None of them had been wearing seatbelts.

Diana married Charles in 1981 but their already shaky marriage fell apart soon after the births of the two princes. They separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996.