One of the photographers who was pursuing Pippa through the streets of Paris on Saturday has spoken to French gossip magazine Gala.

His account reveals that the pistol the driver was brandishing was made of plastic, confirming today's exclusive by the Royalist when the office of designer Viscount shows the danger of assuming that Pippa was being aggressively pursued by a hostile press pack:  "We had been following Pippa since the beginning of the day. She was hyper cool, we even chatted with her and her friends. It was a fine day, and the atmosphere was truly very relaxed. When the driver pulled out his plastic pistol, it was for a joke, to play around. A few minutes later, when the vehicle had parked, I was able to touch the plastic weapon which the driver showed to me. It was possible to see that it was the kind of thing you would find in a toy shop. It's a real shame to see the magnitude this story is taking on."