Former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed dies at 94

Colombo (News 1st) - Egyptian tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed, the former owner of Harrods whose son Dodi died in a car crash in Paris with Princess Diana, has died aged 94, UK media reported Saturday.

Al Fayed moved to the UK in the 1970s, but his application for British citizenship was repeatedly rejected. He spent his final years in his mansion in Surrey, publicly questioning the circumstances of his son's death. But his claim that the accident had been engineered by MI6, the British secret service, on the instigation of Prince Philip, was rejected by a French judge.

He sold Harrods to a Qatari company in 2010. He also sold Fulham Football Club, which he owned for many years.

Al Fayed started his career as a businessman in Alexandria, Egypt, selling soft drinks. He married the sister of a Saudi millionaire for whom he then worked in Saudi Arabia. He later moved into shipping and went on to become an advisor to the Sultan of Brunei, who was at the time the world's wealthiest person.

He moved to the UK in 1974 and in 1979 bought the Paris Ritz Hotel with his brother Ali for 20 million pounds sterling. In 1985 they bought Harrods for 615 million pounds.