British and American media on Thursday published conflicting reports of a “car chase” of Prince Harry, the youngest son of Charles III, and his wife Meghan Markle by paparazzi in New York, which the couple described as “near catastrophic.”

This was announced on Wednesday by a spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex they were the victims of a “merciless” two-hour chase that almost caused numerous crashes.

But New York police, the city’s mayor and the driver who briefly connected the couple in his taxi on Wednesday played down the danger and length of the alleged pursuit.

paparazzi accusation

On Thursday, in an interview broadcast by the British channel ITV, one of the photographers involved accused the Duke of Sussex’s entourage of causing danger.

“It was very tense trying to keep up with the vehicles,” said the photographer, who wished to remain anonymous.

“They did a lot of roadblocks and there were a lot of different types of maneuvers to stop what was happening. His driver turned it into a disastrous experience.”he added.

“I wanted to drive fast, change lanes (…) go in the opposite direction,” he said.

The incident happened after Enrique (38) and Meghan (41) attended the award ceremony with the mother of American actress Doria Ragland.

They are compared to the tragic death of Lady Di

An NYPD spokesman said the group’s transportation was “challenged” by the photographers, but “no collisions, injuries or arrests were reported.”

The US tabloid New York Post quoted a source as saying that there were no emergency calls to the police and that the alleged chase “didn’t last two hours at all”.

But Chris Sanchez, a member of the couple’s security team, told CNN the chase was alarming and dangerous.

“I’ve never seen or experienced anything like it,” he said. “What we had in our hands was very chaotic. The public was at various times in danger. It could have been fatal,” he said.

Prince Harry maintains a strained relationship with the press, and in recent years has filed numerous lawsuits in Great Britain against tabloids for violating their privacy.

He and Meghan left the British royal family at the beginning of 2020 and went to live in California, citing, among other things, unbearable media pressure.

The account of the incident, which happened in New York on Tuesday, has been compared to the circumstances of the accident in Paris in which Princess Diana, Harry’s mother, died in 1997 while being chased by photographers.