Paparazzi put Harry 'at risk'
2005-04-26 07:08
London - Britain's Prince Harry was put "at risk" by photographers who pursued him and his girlfriend as they travelled in a jeep while on safari in Botswana, royal officials said on Monday.
Aides to the 20-year-old prince - whose mother, Princess Diana, died in 1997 when her speeding car crashed in Paris as it was followed by photographers - have raised the issue with Britain's Press Complaints Commission (PCC).
Paddy Harverson, the press secretary for Harry's father, Prince Charles, said the young prince was travelling in a jeep along a bumpy dirt track when a vehicle carrying the photographers followed alongside it before pulling out in front.
"We're very concerned about the circumstances in which these photographs were taken," Harverson said.
"There was a pursuit of Prince Harry's jeep along a rutted dirt track that involved dangerous driving putting the occupants of both Prince Harry's vehicle and the photographers at risk of an accident.
"In those conditions and on that road, there was no room for error if anything had gone wrong."
No official complaint
The photographers were seeking pictures of Harry with 19-year-old Chelsy Davy.
Two British national newspapers printed pictures of the pair in the jeep on Monday.
Harverson said the PCC had been contacted, but that no official complaint had been made, although he had spoken to the editors of the newspapers that printed the images.
"We don't want this to happen again," he added.
Princess Diana died when the armoured limousine in which she was travelling struck a pillar in a Paris underpass as it sought to evade photographers following on motorbikes.
An official inquiry into the report blamed chauffeur Henri Paul, who investigators said was drunk, travelling too fast and was not trained to drive the heavy vehicle.
However a number of Britons - Prince Harry among them, according to some reports - hold the press responsible for the princess's death.