Child found alive under dead bodies at shooting scene in France
AAP September 06, 20124:15PM
A FOUR-year-old girl has been found alive at the scene of a shooting where four bodies were discovered near the edge of the French Alpine village of Chevaline.
The child was found unharmed under the bodies in the car some eight hours after the killings took place, local prosecutor Eric Maillaud said. She had kept still for hours after the apparent attack on a car of British tourists.
It is unclear if she hid under the bodies for safety or if they fell on top of her.
"She couldn't tell the difference between the good and the bad people. She immediately smiled and began speaking in English when a gendarme took her in his arms and carried out out of the car," Maillaud told The Guardian.
A BMW containing the bodies of a man slumped over the wheel and two women who were seated in the back was earlier found in a British-registered car in a forest car park near the edge of Chevaline, police said.
All three who were shot dead in the car have been identified as British tourists. The identity of the dead man inside the car, described as the father of the family has been "almost certainly'' established, while the two female victims are yet to be definitively identified, Maillaud said.
Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud talks to journalists near the scene at a parking near the Annecy Lake, eastern France. Picture: AFP/ Jean-Pierre Clatot
A seriously wounded eight-year-old girl was earlier found near the vehicle and had to be airlifted to Grenoble's CHU hospital where she underwent surgery.
The critically injured girl was reportedly shot three times, The Daily Mail reports.
A firemen an rescue vehicule pictured on the road leading to the scene near the Annecy Lake, eastern France. Picture: AFP/ Jean-Pierre Clatot
The body of a passing male cyclist since identified as a French local was also found nearby. Police said he was "in the wrong place at the wrong time" and there are some suggestions he may have witnessed the killings or attempted to intervene.
The bloody scene was discovered by another cyclist, thought to be British, who has since been treated for severe shock.
A French gendarme blocks the road leading to the scene of the shooting. Picture: AFP/Jean-Pierre Clatot
Maillaud had earlier mistakenly told journalists the older injured girl had died. She remains in a critical condition.
The scene, located close to Lake Annecy in the Haute-Savoie area of eastern France, was littered with bullets Maillaud said.
"It is a dramatic crime scene like we see on the TV. We are employing all necessary means to investigate. Two men and two women are the victims. The car is a British-registered BMW estate," he told the Daily Mail.
"One of the male victims was a cyclist. He was found near his bike in his cycling gear. The other man was in the driving seat of the car. The two women were in the back of the car. There is a large number of gun cartridges at the crime scene," Mr Maillaud said.
The area around the car has been sealed off and a forensic team will examine the scene. No weapons have been found in or outside of the vehicle which was littered with bullets.
- with AFP
