Huge Blaze At Hotel Where Diana Spent Last Night

Dozens of firefighters have battled a huge blaze at the luxury Paris hotel where Princess Diana spent her last night before she was killed in a car crash.

Flames ripped through the top floor of the Ritz Paris, threatening work carried out as part of a three-and-a-half year restoration project, which was just weeks from completion.

Some 150 workers were evacuated from the site in Place Vendome at around 5am (6am local time) as around 15 fire trucks and 60 firefighters tackled the fire.

The cause of the blaze, which started on the seventh floor before spreading through the attic to the roof, is not yet known, Paris fire service spokesman Captain Yvon Bot said on French TV.

He said firefighters had had difficulty accessing the area of the building affected and added: "There is no longer any risk of it spreading, but the operation will still take a very long time."

There were no known injuries.

The Ritz - where rooms start at £900-a-night - did not comment during the incident and the hotel's website still indicated it was accepting bookings for March.

The hotel opened in 1898 and later became famous as the home of Coco Chanel and Marcel Proust, as well as a favourite watering hole of Ernest Hemingway.

The building's latest revamp began in August 2012, overseen by interior architect Thierry W Despont, and included the building of a "discreet tunnel" to enable VIP guests to come and go in privacy.

Diana, Princess of Wales, was captured on CCTV leaving the hotel with the owner's son Dodi Fayed shortly before both were killed in a car crash in August 1997.