London, April 22 (Reuters): The family of Britain’s Princess Diana said today it was “shocked and sickened” by a US television network’s decision to show pictures of her taken as she lay dying in a Paris road tunnel.

Even Prime Minister Tony Blair weighed in to denounce the pictures.

CBS broke what Britain’s own media had long considered the ultimate taboo yesterday by showing photocopies of pictures of the much-loved princess at the scene of her death at 37 in a 1997 car crash. The copies came from a file held by French authorities, who seized the pictures from paparazzi photographers racing behind Diana’s Mercedes, the TV show, 48 Hours Investigates, said.

“Lord Spencer and his family are shocked and sickened by CBS’ actions,” said a statement released on behalf of Diana’s brother, Earl Charles Spencer.

Asked about the programme at his monthly news conference, Blair said: “I think everyone finds it distasteful that there are pictures which can cause distress to the family.”

Buckingham Palace, which speaks on behalf of Diana’s sons William and Harry, said it would not comment on the CBS pictures, but did not hide its displeasure. “We’ve made our opinion very clear in the past on this sort of thing and we won’t be commenting specifically,” a spokesperson said.

CBS defended the decision to show the photographs, saying they were “placed in a journalistic context — an examination of the medical treatment given to Princess Diana just after the crash — and are in no way graphic or exploitative”.