PHOTOGRAPHERS besieging the villa where the Princess of Wales is on holiday in France with her sons have broken into the estate and buzzed it in helicopters, prompting reports that Queen Elizabeth is uneasy about security.
Twelve French police and six British bodyguards have so far seized several metres of film from photographers at the hideaway of Le Clos Seillans, 30km inland from France's Riviera coast.
The Mail on Sunday newspaper in Britain said that Buckingham Palace was seriously concerned that the villa did not meet security standards demanded by the queen for Prince William, next in line to the throne after his father, the Prince of Wales.
Princess Diana flew to the Riviera last Wednesday with her sons, Prince William (14) and Prince Harry (11), and the Duchess of York and her two children just days after her divorce proceedings against Prince Charles began.
France's Journal du Dimanche published a photograph yesterday, taken from a helicopter, in which the clearest figure caught by a swimming pool, alongside several abandoned sun lounger chairs, is an inflatable plastic octopus.
A Parisian freelance photographer and a local news agency photographer were arrested on a forest trail on Thursday within the grounds of the hideaway and have been accused of invasion of privacy. Another was caught inside the perimeter on Thursday night, police sources said. He denied police suspicions that he had cut a hole in the fence to clamber into the park.
Under strict French privacy laws, photographers can risk a one year suspended sentence, a £40,000 fine and confiscation of equipment for printing photographs of someone in a private place against their will.
Security at the private chateau is thought to have been stepped up following the intrusions by the French and Italian paparazzi.
Photographers seemed undeterred on Saturday night by a torrential downpour following days of heat. One local man has begun selling cold drinks by the roadside.
"It is rapidly becoming a holiday circus out there. The security problems are enormous and somehow it does not seem appropriate that Prince William and his brother are in such an atmosphere," the Mail on Sunday quoted a senior palace source as saying.
The newspaper added that plans would be drawn up for Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth to be consulted in future over holiday locations. The queen was being kept informed with daily reports because she was so concerned.
The royals are staying at Le Clos de Meaux, near the village of Seillans, in hills above Cannes. It is thought that they plan to remain at the chateau until Wednesday next and will then fly back to Britain by private jet from Cannes airport.
The rambling, ivy clad property, set in 150 acres of grounds, is owned by a friend of the Duchess of York, the motor racing millionaire Paddy McNally.