London, Oct 18 : An important witness, who testified in the inquest probing into the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris, has likened the impact to an ‘explosion'.

Taxi passenger Brian Anderson, a businessman, testified to the Royal Courts of Justice in London through a video link from his home in the US.

His evidence may be vital in deciding whether the princess’ death was an Establishment conspiracy.

Anderson told the jury hearing the case of the crash, which killed the royal and her lover Dodi Al Fayed ten years ago, said that he saw a ‘significant flash of light’ followed by ‘a very loud bang’

“I saw a pretty significant flash of light, I heard a very loud bang and then our car proceeded to attempt to come to a very quick and abrupt stop,” the Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

“It was a very loud noise which sounded like an explosion...we came to a rapid stop and I slumped forward to one side, I saw an object passing in front of us and hit the right side of the tunnel, I immediately turned to see if there were cars coming up.

“At the time that I saw the object going in front of us it happened very quickly, I didn’t know what it was but I knew that it was a large metal object and when it came to a rest and stopped it was a black Mercedes.

“Having not seen any other cars in front of us at the last time I had a frontal view at the window ... I deduced that it was the car that just passed us,” he added.

Anderson also said that the flash of light appeared to originate from his left side.

He also gave an account of four motorbikes that flanked the Mercedes that was carrying the princess and Al fayed before it went into the Alma underpass.

“The bikes were like a cluster in a swarm around the Mercedes,” he said.

One motorbike appeared to be trying to overtake the Mercedes or another motorbike, he believed. He said to his taxi driver at the time: “the guy is f****** crazy,’ he said.

The jury has already heard that ten paparazzi on bikes were following the royal from the Ritz Hotel. (ANI)