London: A former SAS soldier who had made the sensational claim that the elite British army regiment had a hand in Princess Diana's death has fled the UK before he could be quizzed by police, a media report has said. Known only as Soldier N, the former SAS sergeant vanished days before he was due to be interviewed as part of a "scoping exercise" into information surrounding Diana's death, the report said.

He had been expected to meet Scotland Yard officers in the coming days as part of a new assessment of the evidence in connection with the 1997 car crash in which Diana and Dodi Fayed died. Last night a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police was quoted as saying by the report: "The met is currently scoping recent information regarding the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed. This scoping exercise is not complete." News about the ex-soldier suddenly leaving the country is bound to throw the probe into disarray, the report said.

Officers were keen to speak to him after he reportedly told his estranged wife that a special forces hit squad was behind the death of Diana, the report said. The claims were only made public last month. "Soldier N is key to this inquiry as he is the person who made the claims. Pressure on him has been mounting since the original story broke last month. He was aware police wanted to interview him," a source was quoted as saying by the paper.

Soldier N's estranged wife revealed that during a conversation in 2011, her husband had claimed Diana, 36, was killed by the SAS. During the conversation, she remarked to him how sad it was that Prince William's mother had been killed, only for him to reportedly reply: "As a matter of fact, it was the Regiment that did it." Soldier N allegedly further told his wife that the car crash in Paris was caused after an SAS hit team flashed a blinding light at Diana's driver Henri Paul.