Twentieth anniversary of Princess Diana's death brings out the crowds

Twenty years ago the death of Princess Diana spurred unprecedented displays of mourning in the United Kingdom and around the world.

The People's Princess, the Queen of Hearts, Diana was a royal like no other and her death, at just 36 years old, still has crowds reeling two decades on.

In Paris where she died, and at Kensington Palace where she lived, flowers and tributes to the memory of the People's Princess have been laid.

On a sunny August morning, not dissimilar to the one 20 years ago when the world woke to the news, Diana, Princess of Wales was dead.

Thirty seconds after the Princess's car crashed in the Parisian tunnel, Frederick Maillez - an off-duty emergency doctor - was there.

"When I opened the door I discovered this young lady, and she was alive but she was unconscious and difficulty to breathe.

"I would have loved to save her, "I tried my best, the best I could".

Soon after came Xavier Gourmelon - the first fire fighter on the scene, who said "nobody knew it was her".

He described the moment Princess Diana regained conscious and said what he believed were her last words.

"She looked at me and said, 'Oh my god what's happened', I tried to calm her down and tell her we'd look after her and she fell into a coma again."

Diana's story that night has been agonised over, scrutinised, pieced together for years.

She left the Ritz Hotel after midnight with her boyfriend Dodi al-Fayed, and in a car with a driver and bodyguard drove at speed, paparazzi in tow.

Minutes later, the crash came that would later kill her, prompting global grieving on an epic scale.

Colin Edwards, a Princess Diana supporter met her about 64 times, "on walkabouts all over this country. 

"I was such a huge fan of hers, I used to try and see her as often as I could. I'm retired now but when I was working I use dot take days off from work."

Australian Renae Plant and her family came to London from LA and Spain.

She first met Princess Diana when she was 12  and then again in Sydney at 18.

Her passion and obsession for memorabilia took off, and she now owns a whole basement of 'Diana-ness'.

Holding up an issue of a 1997 Harpers Bazaar magazine, she said "when she died it was a real tribute to her - we own that one which is like god …we kind of outbid Kensington palace for it".

It was at Kensington Palace yesterday, that Prince William and Harry visited their mother's memorial garden and met with her adoring fans.

And where today on the anniversary proper, they reflected in private.

Newshub.