This move was approved by Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, its most senior officer.
The new allegations claim that the Princess of Wales was murdered by a member of the military.
These claims reportedly surfaced during the trial of Sgt Danny Nightingale, the SAS sniper convicted of illegal weapons possession, and were passed to Scotland Yard by the Royal Military Police.
Officers of the specialist crime and operations command unit will now look into the new reports that the Princess, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul were murdered.
Dodi’s father and Harrods owner Mohammed Fayed’s previous claims that his son was murdered have so far been ignored.
And the reported source of these latest accusations are the estranged parents of Sgt Nightingale, who reportedly wrote to the SAS’s commanding officer revealing that their daughter-in-law had been told the unit had ‘arranged’ the Princess’s death and that this had been ‘covered up’.
A police spokesman released a statement on Saturday evening, confirming:
‘The Metropolitan Police Service is scoping information that has recently been received in relation to the deaths and assessing its relevance and credibility.
‘The assessment will be carried out by officers from the specialist crime and operations command. This is not a reinvestigation and does not come under Operation Paget.'
A 2008 inquest found that Diana and Dodi had been unlawfully killed, partly due to the ‘gross negligence’ of their driver.