France Shooting: Bullet-Ridden BMW Removed

[Westwood]

France Shooting: Bullet-Ridden BMW Removed

French President Francois Hollande vows that "everything will be done" to find the killer of a British family in the Alps.

6:08pm UK, Thursday 06 September 2012

Police have removed the bullet-ridden BMW from the scene of a mystery shooting which left a British family dead in the French Alps.

Detectives believe the gunman used an automatic weapon and may have been a professional killer.

They said three of the four people killed received bullet wounds to the centre of the forehead during the bloodshed near the village of Chevaline, near Lake Annecy, in the Haute-Savoie region.

French President Francois Hollande, speaking at a press conference in London, where he was attending the Paralympic Games, said "everything will be done" to find the killer.

The British husband and wife killed were named by neighbours as Saad and Iqbal al Hilli. Their two children, who survived the attack, were named as eight-year-old Zehab and four-year-old Zaina.

Iraqi-born Mr al Hilli, 50, a skilled computer engineer from Claygate, Surrey, was found slumped over the wheel of his bullet-riddled red BMW estate with the engine still running.

The killings took place at a beauty spot

His wife and her mother, who has a Swedish passport, were found shot dead in the back.

Public prosecutor Eric Maillaud said a passing cyclist, a British former RAF officer on holiday, discovered the bodies and alerted emergency services.

He also found Zehab, who collapsed in front of him near the car. She had been violently beaten around the head and shot in the shoulder. She is now fighting for her life in an induced coma in a hospital in the city of Grenoble.

Her sister Zaina was found alive hiding underneath the front passenger seat and legs of her mother - eight hours after the massacre. She has been admitted to another Grenoble hospital in "distress" and is receiving psychiatric care.

Both girls, who go to school in Claygate, are being guarded by armed police.

The body of a male cyclist - Sylvain Mollier, a father-of-three, from the nearby town of Ugines - was found near the BMW.

It is thought the factory worker inadvertently cycled into the scene of the attack, moments after overtaking the British cyclist. Mr Mollier was shot in the head, as was Mr al Hilli and his mother-in-law.

Mr Maillaud described the shooting as "horrific and alarming" and "a gross act of savagery" during a press conference in Annecy.

Mr al Hilli had been working as a freelance engineer for Guildford-based Surrey Satellite Technology after fleeing Saddam's Iraq, neighbours said.

Police guard the scene after the shooting

He and his family had been staying in a caravan at a campsite popular with UK tourists called Le Solitaire du Lac, in Saint Jorioz, since Monday.

It is believed their neighbours at the campsite alerted police when they appeared to be missing.

No weapons were found at the scene of the shooting, which happened at around 3.40pm on Wednesday. Fifteen cartridges were found near the vehicle.

Only the windows had been shot through, leading police to speculate it may have been the work of a professional hitman.

Stephane Bouchet, from local newspaper Le Dauphine Libere, told Sky News a witness two miles from the car park saw a car driving very fast away from the scene around the time of the shooting.

Post-mortems are due to be carried out on Thursday or Friday.

There are 60 police officers involved in the operation and the nearby area has been sealed off as investigations continue.

Surrey Police said it was assisting the French authorities and liaising with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

 

[Westwood]

Girl, 4, hid under bodies of slain family

Date September 7, 2012

A four-year-old girl was discovered alive inside the boot of a British-registered BMW, pictured, in a camping ground where three others were found shot dead. Photo: Reuters

A four-year-old girl miraculously survived a shooting in the French Alps that left four people dead by curling up under the bullet-riddled corpses of her mother and grandmother.

The little girl spent eight hours concealed on the back seat of her family's BMW estate following a mysterious and brutal gun attack which also left her elder sister seriously injured and killed a passer-by.

Her father, who was found dead in the driver's seat, was identified on Thursday as Saad al-Hilli, a 50-year-old born in Baghdad but resident in Claygate, Surrey, in London's commuter belt.

The fourth man who died is believed to be a local who happened to be cycling past the scene of the crime.

The girl's elder sister, who was found shot next to the car, was in a serious but stable condition in hospital after being flown by helicopter to the nearby city of Grenoble.

Eric Maillaud, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, said the wounded sister had been placed in an induced coma ahead of further surgery.

He said the girl's life was not in danger but revealed that she had been shot in the shoulder and suffered "extremely violent" blows to the head during Wednesday's attack.

Maillaud said the four-year-old had emerged unscathed.

"She stayed, curled up under the bodies for eight hours and didn't move in all that time," he said.

The first police to arrive on the scene did not spot the girl and, with the car being left untouched and the area sealed off pending the arrival of forensic experts, she was left to endure a traumatic ordeal until she was finally discovered around midnight on Wednesday.

"It was only once we had access to the scene of the crime that we found her," Maillaud said.

"The little girl spoke English. She heard noises, shouts but she can't tell us any more than that. She is only four years old.

"She is being looked after and we are doing everything we possibly can to care for her."

The family had been staying at the nearby Saint Jorioz camp site, where fellow campers who reported their disappearance on Wednesday evening had described them as being of Middle Eastern appearance.

A sense of shock pervaded the three-star Le Solitaire du Lac site on Thursday as campers struggled to come to terms with the shocking assault.

"It's difficult to understand that something like this has taken place in a holiday site," said Frenchman Jean-Claude Guillamet.

"It's created a chill, one can see that people here are very moved."

French authorities said the victims were discovered by a passing cyclist around 3.50pm local time on Wednesday. The cyclist who was killed had overtaken him minutes earlier.

Several witnesses reported seeing a car speeding away from the scene around the time the attack took place.

Experts from the national gendarmerie's IRCGN unit collected DNA evidence from the scene and were checking spent bullet cartridges in an attempt to identify the weapons used.

Local police defended the decisions that led to the four-year-old being left in the car for so long.

"We had instructions not to enter the car and not to move the bodies," Lieutenant-Colonel Benoit Vinnemann of the local gendarmerie told AFP.

The gendarmes were unable to open the doors of the family's BMW for fear that bullet-pierced windows would shatter, potentially compromising the work of the IRCGN forensic team.

"Firemen, technicians and doctors all looked into the car through the holes in the windows but none of them saw the girl," Vinnemann added.

A helicopter equipped with a thermal camera took images of the car to check if there were any other bodies inside, but also failed to identify the girl. "She was so close to her mother they appeared as one mass," said Vinnemann.

In London, a plainclothes policewoman stood outside the suspected home of the family on Thursday.

The policewoman was posted outside the spacious detached house in a leafy residential district of Surrey, southwest of London, while a Surrey police spokeswoman said the force was assisting French authorities in the investigation.

Outside the family home on Thursday, postman Gary Standford said Hilli had "seemed a pleasant man".

"He'd been living here for about three years," Standford said.

AFP

 

[Westwood]

Alps Shooting Victim Was 'Wonderful Engineer'

Amid growing speculation over the motive for the shootings, the spotlight focuses on the business affairs of father Saad al Hilli.

5:30pm UK, Thursday 06 September 2012

Hearses arrive at the scene of the shooting in Chevaline, eastern France

The father-of-two shot dead along with his wife and daughters in France was an engineer and computer design expert who lived in Surrey, according to reports.

Saad al Hilli, 50, was originally from Baghdad, Iraq, but is thought to have moved to the UK in the 1970s.

His family is thought to have left the Middle East country after their mechanical engineering business was looked upon "unfavourably"by Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party.

A friend of the family said Mr al Hilli grew up in London and went to school in Pimlico.

He spoke to Mr al Hilli on August 24 and he told him the family were going on holiday for two weeks. The friend added the family had a property in France, as well as their home in Claygate, near Esher.

The friend said: "He was a good friend, a close friend.

"Saad was the perfect father and a wonderful engineer. He was a keen cyclist."

Mr al Hilli is thought to have worked in the aviation and aerospace industry, for a Wiltshire-based aerial photography company called AMS 1087 Limited.

Julian Stedman, Mr al Hilli's accountant, described him as a "very jovial" person.

He said: "He would be working for several months for one company and then possibly move on when the work dried up.

"He tended to work mainly for one company at a time. He worked very hard."

The family are reported to have left for France on August 29.

The bodies of Saad and his wife were found in their BMW estate in Chevaline, near Annecy.

Their daughters, eight-year-old Zehab and Zaina, four, survived the attack although Zehab suffered a fractured skull after she was beaten.

 

[Westwood]

Ex-Top Cop: Shootings 'May Be Terror Related'

Two experts give their opinion on who could have carried out the killings and what the police should do in the early stages.

6:41pm UK, Thursday 06 September 2012

The killing of a skilled Iraqi-born engineer and two of his family in the French Alps may have been terror-related, a former police chief has told Sky News.

Police in France are considering a number of possible motives for the shooting.

Here, former commander of the Flying Squad John O'Connor and criminologist Professor David Wilson offer their insights.

John O'Connor, former commander of Flying Squad:

"The shootings look like they are terrorist-related. The people that have done it are military trained. It certainly seems to be a military assassination. The killers were sending a message about not crossing them. It doesn't sound like a gangland hit.

Was the Iraq-born victim involved in the intelligence world? He reportedly worked for AMS 1087 Ltd which is listed as Aerial Photographers and Surveys. Is there any significance in this?

The killers don't sound UK-based and I don't see any connection with criminals in this country.

It appears the gun was an automatic weapon, used professionally - because of the accuracy. This would lead one to think of trained personnel, terrorists.

It was well planned and professionally executed. You can forget it being carried out by a local villain and I don't think it was a botched robbery.

The police should be concentrating on the victim's background, who he works for, what his movements have been.

The killings would have taken a lot of planning. A surveillance operation takes time and money. Who is going to sponsor them?

These sort of cases are always notoriously difficult to solve. If the police run into a brick wall of silence, then this would suggest that this is a more organised and almost certainly terrorist inspired hit."

An area view of the murder scene

Professor David Wilson, Professor of Criminology, Birmingham City University:

"This is still a 'who done it', not a 'why done it'.

So you have to concentrate on who has access to these victims and who has the opportunity to use this access to affect the killings.

The police should also look at how many people were in the holiday party.

We know there was one man, two children and two women. Were there other people in the group?

The police should work out whether anybody is missing.

You've got to deal with everything closer to home first.

Although this kind of murder is unusual, I think the case is very solveable.

There are two young witnesses who may be able to provide some information.

In regard to why the killer wanted these people dead, most murder victims are in some form of relationship with the perpetrator.

We need to establish the relationship between these victims. Only then should you start thinking about more fanciful theories of hitmen or other types of killers.

In my experience, hitmen do not normally leave witnesses at their crime scenes.

 

[THE_CHANSTER]

This whole incident is very tragic and bizarre. All the victims were shot in the head and the 4 year old daughter hiding in the trunk and not discovered until 8 hours later. WTF!
A local cyclist was also shot in the head.

This has all the hallmarks of a Professional hit man who knew exactly what he was doing.
Hopefully the two daughters can shed some light on the perpetrator.

 

[seesuatah]

Elder sister head has multiple fractures because she was beaten up by the killer badly probably using his machine gun.

Four years old will be too shocked to tell anything she knows.

Both will be scarred for life.

Another cyclist of father of three also died because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Really sad story of the week.

 

[Westwood]

France shooting: Three victims were shot in the head

Three of the four victims killed at a French Alpine beauty spot were shot in the middle of the head, prosecutors said today.

Police around the BMW at the scene of the shooting in woods near Chevaline in the French Alps

Bruno Waterfield, Henry Samuel and Donna Bowater

2:01PM BST 06 Sep 2012

• Owner of car named as 50-year-old Saad Al-Hilli
• Girl found alive after hiding under mother's body for eight hours
• Older girl believed to have suffered a fractured skull
• Police investigating "very particular modus operandi"

The family including parents, an older woman and two children were found in a bullet-riddled BMW near Chevaline in France.

The owner of the car was named as Iraqi-born Saad Al-Hilli, 50, who lived in Claygate, Surrey.

Mr Al Hilli is understood to have been the secretary of a Wiltshire-based aerial photography company, AMS 1087, since 2007.

The woman, believed to be the mother of the two girls, was reportedly 50 years old while a 77-year-old Swedish woman was also killed in the car.

They were discovered by a French cyclist named as Sylvain Mollier, a father-of-three in his 40s, who overtook a British cyclist on the approach to the crime scene yesterday afternoon. The second rider, a former serviceman in the RAF, then raised the alarm after finding the bloodbath.

Eric Maillaud, the Annecy prosecutor, confirmed today that the French cyclist, the man and the older woman were all killed by bullets to the head. Detectives discovered 15 spent bullet casings around the car, which was locked and the engine running when it was discovered.

[SUP]

A French gendarme blocks the road leading to the murder scene (AFP/Getty Images)
[/SUP]
The body of the younger woman remains in the BMW and a cause of death has not yet been established. Speaking at a press conference, Mr Maillaud described the killings as "heinous" as more details about the discovery of the youngest child emerged. A four-year-old girl was found to be missing after police spoke to campers at Le Solitaire du Lac campsite in Saint Jorioz.

She was eventually discovered hiding beneath her mother's legs in the car where she had remained for up to eight hours. Mr Maillaud revealed she was being cared for at a psychiatric hospital and had spoken briefly about what had happened.

A seven-year-old girl, thought to be her sister, was found injured next to the car and was taken to Grenoble Hospital with a fractured skull. She had been placed in an artificial coma and had undergone surgery, Mr Maillaud added. He said she was not yet out of danger after suffering "extremely violent contusions of the skull" and a bullet "in the shoulder".

"It was hard on this little girl," he said. "Our role is to ensure that the investigation is not polluted. Things must be done in a methodical way, otherwise we may never find the perpetrator of these crimes."
He said the attack was "particularly out of the ordinary".

Mr Al-Hilli was identified as the owner of the car from its registration plates but detectives were unable to match the woman to the photograph in a passport left at the campsite. "We do not absolutely know for what reason these people were killed," Mr Maillaud said. "Three of the four people killed were hit by shots to the head. Only autopsies will say more. They are planned Friday."

"It was clearly an act of extreme savagery and it was obvious that who did this wanted to kill," he added. Paying tribute to the British cyclist who stopped and gave first aid to the older girl, the prosecutor added: "The way the cyclist acted, he should be saluted. He is a former Royal Forces man."

A senior police source said the terrified youngest child had only been found at midnight when witnesses at Le Solitaire du Lac campsite told detectives the family had two children, not one. Only then did they "break with protocol" and open the doors to find the girl.

He said she was very small and young for her age, and had not appeared to have understood what had happened to her family.

[SUP]

Gendarmes and investigators at the camp site where the slain British family were holidaying in Saint Jorioz, near Annecy (AP)
[/SUP]
Along with her sister, who was in hospital after being beaten and left for dead, he said they were "key witnesses" who were being heavily guarded.

The source also dismissed suggestions the attack may be linked to two attempted car-jackings, describing the massacre as a "very particular modus operandi" in a spot popular with tourists. The family was believed to have been coming to the end of their holiday, having arrived in France at the end of August.

[SUP]

The home of Saad al-Hilli in Claygate, Surrey (AFP/Getty Images)
[/SUP]
Mr Maillaud said that when forensic officers began a detailed examination they found the girl who had remained hiding, silently, in terror, for up to eight hours. "When the investigators got into the car they discovered a little girl, who was frozen still and uninjured," he said.

"She could not tell the difference between the good guys and bad guys. She spontaneously began to smile and speak in English when the policeman took her in his arms and pulled her out of the car."
He added: "The little girl spoke English. She had heard the noises, the cries but she couldn't say more, she is only four years old."

[SUP]

French gendarmes stand guard near vehicles in the Le Solitaire du lac camp site in the village of Saint-Jorioz where the British family were staying (AFP/Getty Images)
[/SUP]
Police are unsure when they will be able to question the girl, who was in a state of shock. Kara Owen, the deputy British ambassador, is in Grenoble at the injured girl's bedside in hospital before going to the scene of the massacre at Chevaline. Officers said the younger girl had remained undiscovered for eight hours "due to procedure".

The source explained: "The crime scene was kept frozen until forensics experts arrived from Paris during the night. "This meant that the dead bodies had to remain in the place where they fell. The little girl was well hidden under her mother’s legs, and clearly was in a state of shock." The identity of the victims "remains to be verified", Mr Maillaud said.

The site reported a family including parents and a grandmother missing.

One woman, who was staying at the same campsite, said: "I saw the two women yesterday with the two little girls collecting apples. Everything seemed normal, but I didn't know them. "It was the first year that they had been seen here. It is terrible. The atmosphere is heavy, nobody is speaking."

[SUP]

Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud answers to journalists on the road leading to the scene of the shooting (AFP/Getty Images)
[/SUP]
Mr Maillaud said the main theory was that the attack was a crime gone wrong but said "a family drama cannot be excluded". "The owner, the driver of the vehicle, is established as a British citizen. For the others, presumably his family, it remains to be seen," the prosecutor said. "He had left his passport details at the Saint-Jorioz campsite."

Later, it emerged there had been two attempted car-jackings by an armed gang 50 miles away on the same night. Police were investigating links between the attempted thefts and the shooting. A police source told France's Europe 1 radio: "Current theories are either that the family were the victims of an armed robbery or that they disturbed a drug deal taking place."

[SUP]

Cows walk on the Combe d'Ire road in the French Alpine village of Chevaline (AFP/Getty Images)
[/SUP]
The shooting happened in a tree-lined car park near the picturesque village of Chevaline, a popular destination for holiday-makers and tourists. The Foreign Office said that the British Embassy's deputy head of mission in France was at the scene of the shooting. "She is liaising with the local authorities and police to get more information," a spokesman said.

Didier Berthollet, the mayor of Chevaline, told a local newspaper that “the victims were not from the village”. He added: “We have never seen such horror on our doorsteps before. The police have interviewed everyone in the village hoping to find a witness. There are only 70 homes, so it didn’t take them long.”

[SUP]

TV journalists gather on the road near the French Alpine village of Chevaline where four people were shot dead (AFP/Getty Images)
[/SUP]
Earlier this summer the Foreign Office warned British tourists driving on the Continent that they were regarded as “easy targets” by gangs which staged accidents to make them stop before robbing them. A French police officer said: “It’s the time of year, the thieves go for tourists who they see as rich.”

France recently tightened its laws on illegal firearms amid a worrying rise in the use of guns by criminals. In July a gunman using an assault rifle shot dead two people and injured five at a nightclub in Lille after being turned away.

In March, Mohammed Merah, who claimed to be linked to al-Qaeda, killed four people at a Jewish school and three soldiers in southern France. He was killed after a 32-hour siege in Toulouse.

 

[Westwood]

EXECUTED: Manhunt continues for assassin who shot Surrey businessman and grandmother in middle of forehead, cracked skull of daughter, 7, and left girl, 4, hiding under dead mother's skirt

• Father named as Saad Al Hilli, a Baghdad-born businessman who lived with his family in Claygate, Surrey
• Police failed to find terrified four-year-old for several hours because 'they didn't want to disturb crime scene'
• Youngster, named by neighbours as Zeena, told police she 'could not tell the difference between the good guys and bad guys'
• Her older sister, 7, named locally as Zainab, was found near car in critical condition after being hit three times over head with a blunt instrument
• A cyclist, named locally as French father-of-three Sylvain Mollier, found dead nearby with gunshots wounds
• British cyclist, a former member of the RAF, put eight-year-old in recovery position after stumbling across scene
• Police investigating possible link to foiled car-jacking by four masked men carrying pistol in town 50 miles away
• President Francois Hollande, speaking in the UK, has said authorities will 'do our utmost to find the perpetrators'
• One neighbour said of Mr Hilli: 'He's not Mr Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I doubt the establishment wanted to get rid of him.'

By SAM GREENHILL, DAVID WILLIAMS and ARTHUR MARTINPUBLISHED: 16:55 GMT, 5 September 2012 | UPDATED: 23:07 GMT, 6 September 2012

Pictured looking relaxed and smiling in a restaurant, this is the British father in the French Alps massacre who it emerged today was known to the intelligence services.Engineer Saad Al-Hilli, 50, was born in Iraq and was put under Special Branch surveillance during the second Gulf War. He was ambushed with his family on Wednesday during a family caravanning trip.In 30 seconds of automatic pistol gunfire, Mr Al-Hilli, his dentist wife Ikbal and her mother were assassinated with single shots to the forehead. The couple's seven-year-old daughter Zainab was shot, pistolwhipped and left for dead.

Saad Al-Hilli, 50, was ambushed with his family on Wednesday during a family caravanning trip. Neighbours confirmed this picture is of the murdered father

Bullet-ridden: Police gather evidence from the BMW estate where Saad Al-Hilli and his family was massacred by a suspected assassin

Delayed reaction: Several hours after police arrived on scene, Mr Al-Hilli's four-year-old daughter Zeena was found alive huddling under her mother's legs inside the car

Crime scene: French gendarme police escort the car involved in the shooting of the British family away from the area

Her little sister Zeena, four, was unharmed and hid under her dead mother's legs for eight terrifying hours before police finally discovered her. A French cyclist, father-of-three Sylvain Mollier, who is believed to have witnessed the bloodbath, was also shot dead. With both children under armed guard in hospital, pictures of the extraordinary scene in the forest near Lake Annecy emerged showing the bullet-riddled BMW estate car.

Spent cartridges littered the area around it. As police launched an international manhunt for the assassin, it emerged that:

■ British intelligence officers were sent to the scene within hours as they urgently re-examined their files on Baghdad-born Mr Al-Hilli;
■ Neighbours said he was grappling with a 'problem' and went on holiday despite Zainab missing the start of the school term;
■ A friend of Mr Al-Hilli spoke of a rumbling inheritance dispute within the family;
■ Police said clinical shots to the centre of the foreheads bore the hallmarks of a professional assassination.

The bodies being taken away from the scene in a private ambulance escorted by police

The gunman shot dead four people in an apparent ambush on a British family in the Alps could have been a professional killer, police have said

Tragedy: French police on guard near the site of the brutal slaying

Response: A firefighter and rescue vehicle, which can provide medical assistance and transport victims to hospital, passes a police officer at the scene of the killings

Mr Al-Hilli lived with his 47-year-old wife and daughters in a £1million home in Claygate, Surrey. He earned up to £28 an hour as a freelance engineer and his CV reveals he worked on projects including designing a 'plasma generator' for a company called Surrey NanoSystems Ltd.

Before that he helped design a satellite for Surrey Satellite Technology, based in Guildford, and ten years ago he worked for another company engineering parts for the 'aircraft, military and medical industries'.

French police inspect a drain under the road to the murder scene at Cheverlaine near Annecy

The four year-old was discovered by investigators from the gendarmerie at midnight eight hours after the massacre took place

Air support: Gendarmes gather around a police helicopter which was drafted in to help in the hunt for the gunman or gunmen

It is understood that Mr Al-Hilli has been known to British intelligence officials for around 20 years. In 2003, during the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq, officers working with the intelligence services mounted a surveillance operation on his home for several weeks, a neighbour who hosted them told the Mail.

The internet is awash with speculation – impossible to verify – that Mr Al-Hilli may have been working in some capacity in the spy world. He arrived in Britain in the late 1970s and was educated to degree level.

London link: Plain-clothes police officers stand outside of the home of Saad Al-Hilli in Claygate, Surrey

London link: The home of Saad Al-Hilli in Claygate, Surrey

'Bright kid': Mr Al Hilli worked at Swindon-based aerial photography company, AMS 1087, which is linked to this accountancy business

French Police officers talk to locals close to the spot where the massacre happened. A French source said the four-year-old was found hiding underneath her mother's legs. The two other bodies were believed to be those of her father and grandmother

Tragic: French Police officers cordon off the road leading to the scene where four people died in a shooting at a parking in Chevaline near the Annecy Lake

'Bright kid': Mr Al Hilli worked at Swindon-based aerial photography company, AMS 1087, which is linked to this accountancy business

FRENCH POLICE 'SHOULD HAVE CHECKED FOR SIGNS OF LIFE', SAY UK FORENSICS EXPERTS

Forensic experts said the first job for police who arrived at the crime scene should have been to check for survivors.

But it could be that the first officers called to the rural beauty spot in the French countryside simply 'panicked' when confronted with the horror.

In the UK, a doctor would be called to certify death - doing so, in this instance, could have alerted officers that the child was alive amidst the carnage in the car.

Jim Fraser, professor of forensic science at the University of Strathclyde, said the first responsibility for officers confronted with such a crime scene is to check the victims for signs of life.

It has been known for victims even with gunshot wounds to the head to live for hours and survive if they get emergency treatment.

He said: 'The overriding responsibility to the first responder at a crime scene, in the UK, would be to ensure that all individuals present are accounted for, their health and welfare, with an initial but thorough look at the crime scene.'

Prof Fraser said of such multiple death crimes: 'It's a pretty horrible scene - not for the faint-hearted.'

Forensic experts say it is a fiction to think murder scenes are preserved in pristine condition until they are examined by crime scene investigators.

Only after police have carried out their duty to preserve life and certify death do they 'freeze the scene'.

Intelligence officers from the British Embassy in Paris are said to have been at the scene of the murder hours after it happened at 4pm (3pm UK time) on Wednesday.

They were tipped off by contacts in the French Interior Ministry as soon as the identity of the car's owner was confirmed. According to the French TV station Demain, locals described embassy staff as being 'military type' and numbering around 20.

Last night David Cameron described the deaths as 'terrible', adding: 'I have spoken to the British Ambassador in France and consular staff are working very hard so that we do everything we can ... and to find out what happened in this very tragic case.

'Obviously the faster we can get to the bottom of what happened, the better.' French President Francois Hollande pledged that the authorities would do their 'utmost to find the perpetrators'.

Julian Stedman, Mr Al-Hilli's accountant, said: 'They were shot through the head so that sounds like a professional killing, which is really very worrying. A casual killer would not do that. The reason for that – I haven't a clue.'

Another neighbour, Jack Saltman, fuelled the mystery by saying: 'I know one little thing which I am not prepared to speak about at the moment. He told me about a problem he had. I have told the police what I know.'

A family friend, Zaid Alabdi, 48, said there was a row centred around money and properties in the UK, Spain and France following the death of Mr Al-Hilli's father a year ago. 'They're a lovely family who worked hard and had no enemies. This may well not be relevant but it is the only problem I can think of in their lives.'

French police are facing growing incredulity that four-year-old Zeena was left in the car with the corpses of her family for eight hours, but justified it by saying they did not want to disturb the crime scene.
Public prosecutor Eric Maillaud said she was 'terrorised, immobile, in the midst of the bodies'.

Making enquries: French investigators had begun inspecting Le Solitaire du Lac campsite at Saint-Jorioz, where the murdered family are believed to have been staying

Gathering clues: A French gendarme stands guard near the caravan thought to have been used by the family

He said: 'We discovered the little girl that nobody had seen, because she hadn't moved, completely in shock and completely frozen.' He said the girl's older sister – beaten three times over the head – 'seems to be pulling through', though she has a fractured skull. He described the murders as an 'act of gross savagery'.

A British cyclist who had been in the RAF stumbled upon the scene after originally being overtaken by Mr Mollier a few minutes earlier. The first thing the cyclist saw was the bloodied figure of Zainab stumbling about in the road next to the BMW, which still had the engine running. Police said the motive for the attack remained a mystery but revealed there were signs of a vehicle braking at the scene.

Sombre: One camper said the atmosphere at the site was 'heavy, nobody is speaking'

Reported missing: The family were believed to have been staying at a campsite in Saint Jorioz (above)

Terrified, the little girl cowered under her murdered mother's skirt. Why didn't police find her for 8 hours?

​

By NICK FAGGE and CLAIRE ELLICOT and SAM GREENHILL

When police eventually prised open the rear door of the BMW estate, four-year-old Zeena Al-Hilli was 'frozen stiff with terror' and cowering under her dead mother's skirt. Her first words as she was led away from the car were: 'Where is Mummy? I want my Mummy!'

But after that instinctive outburst, it was difficult to coax any more words from a child who by this time 'could not tell the difference between the good guys and bad guys'.

Grim: Three of the corpses - two women and a man - were in a car parked in a forest lay-by in hills next to Lake Annecy, in France's Haute-Savoie region

Confusion: Earlier reports had suggested the young girl had died in the attack, but later the prosecutor who had announced her death issued a correction and she is fighting for life at Grenoble's CHU hospital

Last night there was growing incredulity that a small child had been left inside the bloodbath of a car for an incredible eight hours until midnight on Wednesday. For most of that time, French police were actually standing yards away but had simply assumed everyone in the car was dead.

It was only when they interviewed fellow holidaymakers at the campsite where the family were staying that police realised they should have been looking for two girls after all. They then found that Zeena, too young to understand what had been going on, had pitifully clung to her mother's body all evening.

Killed: The identity of the cyclist was not revealed but police believe he may have tried to intervene during a suspected armed robbery attempt on the family in the roadside rest area

Press: Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud answers to journalists on the road leading to the scene - he confirmed the young girl was not dead and was in intensive care

Closed off: A firemen and rescue vehicle is driven on the road leading to the grisly scene

Her father and grandmother were also dead in the car while her elder sister Zainab had already been airlifted to hospital to save her life. But after all the 'noises and shouting' – her words to describe the moment a hitman slaughtered her family – traumatised Zeena had stayed completely silent, daring not move.

Zeena and seven-year-old Zainab – who is thought to have been pistol-whipped in the attack – are the only survivors of the bloodbath. In a hail of gunfire, the three adults were summarily executed along with a passing cyclist with precision shots to their foreheads.

After the alarm was raised by another cyclist, police were on the scene within minutes, and found seriously-injured Zainab bleeding near the car. She was airlifted to hospital in Grenoble for life-saving surgery on her fractured skull.

 

[Westwood]

Each one killed with a single shot to the head: Family massacred in French Alps bore trademark of a professional hitman

• Remote location at car park near Lake Annecy would mean few if any witnesses to the atrocity
• Killer could have been out of France within minutes of the murders on Wednesday, possibly boarding a plane from Geneva within two hours
• He might also have known there were no security cameras in the area
• Saad Al-Hilli, a Baghdad-born businessman, who lived in Claygate, Surrey, was killed along with his wife Iqbal, his mother-in-law and a passing cyclist
• His daughter Zeena, four, managed to survive ordeal
• Her older sister, Zainab, seven, found near car in critical condition after being hit three times over head with a blunt instrument

By STEPHEN WRIGHT PUBLISHED: 21:49 GMT, 6 September 2012 | UPDATED: 22:55 GMT, 6 September 2012

Saad Al-Hilli, 50, was ambushed with his family on Wednesday during a family outing in the French Alps

Three adult members of a seemingly respectable family, each murdered with a single shot in the head.

A seven-year-old girl left with life-threatening injuries and her younger sister badly traumatised after somehow escaping alive from a psychopathic killer. A cyclist who is believed to have witnessed the bloodbath mercilessly assassinated. Such barbarity would be shocking in some of the world’s most lawless countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia...

But for it to happen in a car park near the tranquil shores of Lake Annecy in the French Alps makes the crime infinitely more difficult to comprehend. And, crucially, much more difficult to solve.

What better location for a professional hit than in a remote area, with few if any witnesses likely to see the atrocity, with quick road access to airports in three countries – France, Italy and Switzerland, and even further afield.As French police launched an extensive manhunt to find the killer or killers, investigators were officially keeping an open mind about the motive for the crime and who might have been behind it.

The ruthless efficiency with which the murders were carried out suggested strongly that Saad Al-Hilli, his wife Ikbal and the rest of his family were specific targets, and the cyclist killed because he saw too much.Pictures of the murder scene – in an isolated forest car park, 2.5 miles from the nearest village – show how the BMW was hit with automatic fire before the victims were finished off at point-blank range.Had Mr Al-Hilli and his family been targeted in the UK, police would probably have had access to CCTV footage and data from number-plate recognition cameras, in their hunt for the killer’s escape vehicle.

But in Chevaline there has never been any need for security cameras, another possible clue that the killer may have carefully researched the best place, in terms of escaping detection, to commit the crimes.A quick look at a local map shows he could have been out of France within minutes of the murders on Wednesday, possibly boarding a plane from Geneva within two hours.
​

 

[Westwood]

He fled Iraq as a boy, settled in Surrey and was spied on by the Special Branch: The extraordinary life of the engineer victim at the centre of the Alps shooting

• Officers thought to be from Special Branch maintained constant surveillance on the aeronautical engineer and his family in 2003, said neighbour
• Any operation on the family would almost certainly have been backed up by bugging devices within their detached home
• Saad Al-Hilli's apparent family links to Saddam Hussein's ruling Ba'ath party in Iraq may be of significance

By ARTHUR MARTIN, TOM KELLY and LUCY OSBORNEPUBLISHED: 21:53 GMT, 6 September 2012 | UPDATED: 23:11 GMT, 6 September 2012

British police were said to have spent several weeks tracking the movements of Saad Al-Hilli at the start of the last Gulf War

Stationed on a driveway just yards from their target's £1million home, British police were said to have spent several weeks tracking the movements of Saad Al-Hilli at the start of the last Gulf War.Officers thought to be from Special Branch maintained constant surveillance on the aeronautical engineer and his family, regularly following Mr Al-Hilli – who fled Iraq as a boy – and his brother whenever they drove off.Last night Philip Murphy, a neighbour in the wealthy village of Claygate, Surrey, recalled how police asked if they could use his driveway to spy on the massacre victims' mock-Tudor house.

The retired finance director said: 'I watched them from the window and they were watching Mr Al-Hilli and his brother.'I thought they were from Special Branch. They would sit there all day in their parked car just looking at the house.'When Mr Al-Hilli came out and drove off, they would follow him. It was all very odd. I never told the family they were being watched.'The surveillance happened as the invasion of Iraq by US and British forces began in March 2003.Any operation on the family would almost certainly have been backed up by bugging devices within their detached home.Last night it remained unclear why a surveillance team would be sent to watch a man who, on the outside at least, was a respected engineer.

The home of murdered aeronautical engineer Saad Al Hilli, in Claygate, Surrey, was under police guard yesterday

Mr Al-Hilli, 50, a keen cyclist and badminton player, worked on a freelance basis for a satellite and aerospace technology company in Guildford.

He also owned a computer design company called SHTECH Ltd, which was formed in 2001, and was the company secretary for a Wiltshire-based aerial photography company in Swindon.The dead man's apparent family links to Saddam Hussein's ruling Ba'ath party in Iraq may be of significance.A close friend told how Mr Al-Hilli's father Kadhim, a former factory owner, and mother Fasiha fled Baghdad in the late 1970s. The friend told how Mr Al-Hilli's father had fallen out with the Ba'ath party and was forced to flee the country.It was during this time that Saddam Hussein became powerful in Iraq before becoming its leader in 1979. Mr Al-Hilli came to Britain as a teenager and was educated at Pimlico comprehensive school in central London where he took O- and A-levels, specialising in maths, physics and technical drawing.

Last night Philip Murphy, a neighbour in the wealthy village recalled how police asked if they could use his driveway to spy on the massacre victims' mock-Tudor house

He later took a degree in mechanical engineering and a computer qualification. His CV reveals that he was comfortable with using several software packages and had a string of jobs in the engineering field for the past 20 years. He became a British citizen in 2002.Yesterday Jack Saltman, another neighbour, said Mr Al-Hilli had told how he was grappling with a 'personal problem' on August 29, the day the family left for France.'He told me something about a problem he had,' Mr Saltman said.

'I told the police that I knew what this problem was but I still haven't been able to speak to them about it.'I've known about it for several months now. I knew he had family in Iraq. He did say he was worried about their safety. He came around to see me the night before he went and asked me to keep an eye on the house. He wasn't particularly stressed. He was looking forward to taking the kids to France again.'Mr Saltman declined to reveal the nature of the 'personal problem'.Other neighbours in Claygate described Mr Al-Hilli as a devoted family man who 'had no enemies'.George Aicolina said: 'This doesn't add up. He's no Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I very much doubt the Establishment would want to get rid of him.

It remains unclear why a surveillance team would be sent to watch a man who, on the outside at least, was a respected engineer

'Every time I had a problem, I would go to him. He was a very clued-up person and a precise man.'Mr Al-Hilli met his future wife Ikbal ten years ago while on holiday in Dubai.The couple married a year later in Surrey. Mrs Al-Hilli, an Iraqi who trained as a dentist in Sweden, then moved into her husband's home in Claygate. There were just six people at their register office wedding in Weybridge and Mr Al-Hilli once wrote on the Friends Reunited website: 'I am very happily married with a seven-month-old daughter that has me wrapped around her little finger already.'He recently sold his beloved Suzuki Bandit motorbike, writing ruefully in the for sale advert: 'Unfortunately it has to go as it is hardly used now with kids on the scene.'Zainab was born in 2005 and attends nearby Claygate Primary School. Her younger sister Zeena was due to start in the 'reception year' of the same school next week.The family loved travelling across Europe in their caravan and were understood to own a property in the Dordogne region of south-west France.On this occasion, Mr Al-Hilli told neighbours how the family were going on a spur-of-the-moment two-week holiday to 'get some sunshine and cure his sore back'.

French police guard the road to the murder scene at Cheverlaine near Annecy in the Haute-Savoie region of south-eastern France where the victims of a quadruple murder were discovered

Mr Aicolina said: 'He met his wife in Dubai. He went there on holiday and he met her there. It was a great love affair. She was Iraqi by origin but her parents live in Sweden. She was practising dentistry in the Middle East and they met by chance I think.'They were very, very close and loved the girls very much – a happy loving family, very caring.'He was a nice neighbour. Bad things always happen to the wrong people.'Julian Stedman, 67, who was Mr Al-Hilli's accountant, insisted his client was 'straight up'.'I have been to the house quite a few times and had tea there, Middle Eastern style,' he said.'I have known Saad, his wife Ikbal and his father as well. Saad and I had talks possibly once a week and longer ones once every month.

Police investigate the caravan of the shooting victims at Le Solitaire du Lac camp site yesterday

'Saad is very much a family man. He was very much in love with his wife and his daughters. He adores them. He is a very kind and gentle person.'I have had a tremendous shock. He never talked about what he did in Iraq.'I never thought something of this kind would happen to him and his family. I am very saddened – especially for the little girls who have been left behind.'He was a straight-up guy. There was never any suggestion that he might be up to no good. His accounts were perfect.'Neighbour Lorna Davey added: 'It's shocking. I can't believe it. They were just like everybody else – very friendly and with two sweet little girls. The family was very westernised. There was no hint of an accent.'
​

 

[Westwood]

'I've got nothing to do with it': Brother of Iraq-born businessman executed with wife and mother-in-law in front of daughters in French Alps denies there was family feud over 'financial matters'

• Father named as Saad Al-Hilli, a Baghdad-born businessman who lived with his family in Claygate, Surrey
• He was killed alongside his wife Ikbal and her mother during caravan holiday to Lake Annecy, in eastern France
• The Al-Hilli's seven-year-old daughter, Zainab, is in a coma after suffering fractured skull and a bullet in the shoulder
• Her sister, Zeena, four, escaped unscathed after hiding beneath her mother's legs for eight hours
• Cyclist Sylvain Mollier, 45, a father-of-three, was shot dead after disturbing the multiple killings
  
• British and French police are investigating whether murders were professional hit
  
• Mr Al-Hilli's brother denies family feud suggestions and says he has nothing to do with the killings
  
• Forensics officers examine 15 bullet casings to see if family was targeted by more than one assassin
• Police searching for man in dark shirt driving 4x4 that witnesses saw speeding away from the area
  

By PETER ALLEN and GRAHAM SMITH PUBLISHED: 16:55 GMT, 5 September 2012 | UPDATED: 17:52 GMT, 7 September 2012


The brother of murdered British businessman Saad Al-Hilli today insisted there was 'no feud' between the two of them and that they got on extremely well.

Zaid Al-Hilli visited the nearest police station to his home in Kingston, Surrey, and 'presented himself spontaneously' to officers 'as a matter of course', French prosecutor Eric Maillaud said.Mr Maillaud said Zaid Al-Hilli would be a 'key witness' in the criminal enquiry into the killings because of a dispute said to be about an inheritance.

He said he had heard 'of a possible conflict between the two brothers over money matters' but he could not expand further.

A family friend who knew Mr Al-Hilli from the age of 15 brings flowers to the family home in Claygate, Surrey, this afternoon

Devastated: Two women, who identified themselves as family friends cry as they stand at the front gate of the Al-Hilli home

The prosecutor, who is leading the enquiry into the bloodbath, said Mr Al-Hilli 'went to the police after hearing about an argument, but denied he had a feud with his brother. That's all I can tell you. What is important is for us to listen to this brother procedurally.'

He said Mr Al-Hilli first visited police on Wednesday, within a few hours of the 4pm attack, because he was concerned about his brother's safety following the attack next to Lake Annecy which left four dead.

Following media reports of a feud between the Al-Hilli brothers on Thursday, he again visited police on his own accord to insist that there had been no quarrel.
It came as French detectives began to arrive in Britain to interview Mr Al-Hilli.

Mr Maillaud said up to three detectives would be arriving in London on Saturday morning, where they will liaise with Scotland Yard officers. One is arriving today to deal with any diplomatic problems which might arise.

The police officers are expected to visit the Kingston, Surrey, home of Mr Al-Hilli, and other family members.

Mr Maillaud said that each corpse was found with at least three bullets, and 'at least one bullet to the head'.

The prosecutor said he believed that more than one murderer was involved in the atrocity.

Speaking before a press briefing in Annecy, Mr Maillaud said the 'case looks more and more like an ambush' and that more than one gunman was likely to have been involved. Mr Maillaud said: 'It seems humanly difficult that so many shots could be fired by one man. Instinct tells us there was more than one suspect.'

He confirmed that a green 4x4 and a motorbike were the only two vehicles seen by the unnamed British cyclist who reported the murders.

Secluded: A journalist looks at the spot where the Al-Hilli family car was found with three bodies, and a cowering four-year-old girl, inside

Country lane: Reporters walk towards the tiny dirt lay-by where the massacre took place

Taped-off: Detectives prepare to remove the family car from the murder scene scene yesterday
​

 

[Westwood]

 

[Westwood]

Girl in Alps killings out of coma as sister returns to Britain

<cite style="font-size: 12px; width: 147px; display: block; font-style: normal; ">AFP</cite>September 10, 20122:20AM

A SEVEN-year-old British girl seriously wounded in a French Alps shooting has come out of an artificial coma, while her younger sister has returned to Britain, a prosecutor said.

"The little girl has come out of the artificial coma but she is under sedation and her speech is not yet audible," Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud told AFP. "She is in a better state of health now."

Her four-year-old sister, another survivor of Wednesday's quadruple murder, is now back in Britain, he added.

Seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilli is a key witness, being the only one who could detail the number of killers and describe them.

Her younger sister, who spent eight hours hidden behind the bodies of her mother and an elderly relative in the backseat of their car, has said she heard shots but saw nothing.

Zainab was put in a state of artificial coma to allow her to recover. She suffered a fractured skull after probably being pistol-whipped and was shot in the shoulder.

She will be questioned by investigators specialising in child witnesses.Zeena al-Hilli was set to return accompanied by an aunt and uncle who travelled to France to bring her home, a source close to the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity.

She and her seven-year-old sister Zainab were the only survivors of an attack that saw her father Saad al-Hilli, mother Ikbal and an elderly female relative gunned down in their car on a forested Alpine road. A passing cyclist was also killed.

Her uncle Zaid al-Hilli will face a second day of questioning from investigators, the source added. Zaid presented himself to police in Britain following the murder, denying media reports that the brothers were involved in a financial dispute.

British forensics teams began a second day of searches at the family home in Claygate, a quiet, wealthy commuter village some 25 kilometres southwest of London.

Police stand in the garden of the family home. French police are investigating and have called on neighbouring countries to assist their search for the killer.

Saad al-Hilli, a 50-year-old naturalised Briton of Iraqi origin, worked as a mechanical design engineer with the Surrey Satellite Technology firm.

The attack on the family's car took place outside the village of Chevaline on Wednesday, near the lakeside resort of Annecy in southeast France where the Hillis had been on a camping holiday. Zeena survived the attack by hiding under her dead mother's skirt in the backseat and remained motionless inside the vehicle with the corpses for eight hours before police found her.

Police are treating Zainab as a "key witness" and hope she can provide some clues once she wakes up "The investigators want to speak to her as quickly as possible and with the greatest sensitivity possible," Mr Maillaud told reporters in Annecy.

A group of mothers whose children attended a local primary school bring flowers to the Hilli family's British home.

"It is out of the question to go and interview her in any sort of rushed way. She is extremely traumatised. Only the doctors have the ability to say (when she can be interviewed) and until I get the green light I will do nothing," Mr Maillaud said.

He has ruled out getting any information from Zeena. "All that time she was hiding, terrorised behind her mother's legs. She saw nothing," he said. Autopsies revealed that each of the four victims was shot twice in the head. "All four were killed by several bullets and all four were hit twice in the head," Mr Maillaud said.

Cyclists examine the camping trailer where the British family holidaying in the French Alps were murdered. The two young daughters survived, and relatives have arrived in France to comfort them. Picture: Lionel Cironneau

"The whole scene was played out in a very, very short time." Five French investigators led by Colonel Marc de Tarle are in Britain to work on the case, though they did not all visit the house. "This is an inquiry which is turning out to be long and complex," De Tarle said.

Mr Maillaud said the search of the home would help to build up a profile of the family, while stressing that there should be no presumption that they were involved in any activity which might have made them targets. French authorities have expanded the area of their search around the scene while police in neighbouring Switzerland and Italy are also helping.

Gendarmes are gathered in front of the CHU Hospital, in Grenoble, French Alps, where the two daughters of a British-Iraqi family are staying after a shooting near the French Alpine village of Chevaline.

In France meantime, investigators were again combing over the scene of the crime after an extensive search for clues by 25 officers on Saturday failed to turn up any new clues, according to Bertrand Francois, a regional police commander. Investigators were also trying to nail down the exact movements of the Hilli family before the murder, he said.

Family friends weep outside the al-Hilli family home in Claygate, England. Picture: Peter MacDiarmid

British police officers stand outside the home of the family shot dead in their car in the French Alps.
​

 

[Vanessa]

French police hunt for at least two gunmen after Alps murders
Date September 10, 2012

Assassination signatures ... officers examine the al-Hilli home in Claygate, Surrey. Photo: AP

LONDON: Two or more killers were last night being hunted over the murders of a family in the French Alps, as police continued to probe the dead father's relationship with a brother and his work with a defence-satellite technology company.

While French authorities continued to insist they could not say if the killings had been the result of a professional hit, they confirmed each murder victim had received at least three bullets, including two shots to the head, a technique seen as a signature of assassination.

One investigator said: ''We know the number of weapons that were used and the kinds that were used. Examination of the grooves on the cartridges and of the system for firing the bullet shows there was more than one killer.''

Local mothers bring flowers to lay outside the house. Photo: AFP

The seven-year-old daughter of the family, Zainab, was reported to be out of danger following operations to repair a fractured skull. Police said it was not yet known how she had been bludgeoned. There has been speculation she was pistol-whipped. Eric Maillaud, the chief prosecutor overseeing the investigation, said of speculation that Zainab might have been tortured to force her parents to reveal something: ''This is not the main hypothesis.''

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Last Wednesday, British-based aeronautics engineer Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Iqbal, 47, their two daughters and a 77-year-old woman thought to be Iqbal's mother were on holidays in the Alps near Lake Annecy when they were attacked by gunmen.

A cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45, is believed to have been passing on the same road but apparently became a witness and was also murdered. He took seven bullets.

The younger daughter, four-year-old Zeena, was found crouching under her mother's legs eight hours after the bodies were discovered in a BMW near the village of Chevaline.

The Mail on Sunday reported that Mr al-Hilli was working on a secret contract for one of Europe's biggest defence companies, Surrey Satellites Technology. The newspaper said he was part of a team involved in an undisclosed project linked to European Aeronautic Defence and Space, a company that has contracts with Russia, China and the Foreign Office. Its clients include NASA, the European Space Agency and the British Ministry of Defence contractor Thales.

Claude Moniquet, the director of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Centre, said: ''Mr al-Hilli's company was also a renowned leader in satellite mapping, and if it was secretly doing this in countries which would not welcome such an intrusion, then we have a possible motive.'' He also suggested Middle-Eastern groups might have pressured the Iraqi-born Mr al-Hilli for access to technology and killed him for refusing.

Meanwhile Mr al-Hilli's brother Zaid, who had previously issued a legal caveat to delay the settling of his father's will, denied a family feud. A cousin who lives in Australia, Ali al-Hilli, told London's Telegraph that Zaid was in tears when he spoke to him on the telephone after the killings. ''He kept saying, 'Why? Why? Why? How did this happen? … He was clearly devastated. He wasn't coping.'' Ali al-Hilli said he knew of no disagreement over money. He said Zaid al-Hilli was innocent and intended to care for the girls.

Police continued a detailed search of the al-Hillis' home in Claygate, Surrey, while French police widened their search to Italy and Switzerland, with Mr Maillaud saying it was possible the killers had fled across borders that were only 90 minutes away.

Mr Maillaud said Zeena would soon re-join relatives who had travelled to France to take her home. Zainab, a ''key witness'', was still in hospital in an induced coma, he said.

A former head of Scotland Yard's Flying Squad, John O'Connor, told The Independent he believed the murders were probably the result of a state-sponsored assassination.

 

[Westwood]

France shooting: hiker describes 'horror' of murder scene

A French hiker who discovered the massacre of a British family at a remote Alpine beauty spot told how the scene was like a "horror film" without a "remote control to change the channel".

Eric Maillaud, the chief prosecutor in Annecy, and the French magistrate leading the inquiry, said that they would travel to the UK Thursday to meet with British police officers and speak to relatives of the al-Hilli family. Photo: PA

By Henry Samuel, Victoria Ward in Annecy

9:26PM BST 11 Sep 2012

The witness, who wishes to be known only as Philippe D, was the first person to call the emergency services after the murders of Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife Iqbal, 47 and mother-in-law Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, along a secluded forest road near Lake Annecy.

The couple's two daughters, Zainab, seven, and Zeena, four, miraculously survived the attack last Wednesday despite the elder of the pair being shot in the shoulder and badly beaten.

Philippe D spoke for the first time to give a graphic account of the aftermath of the shootings, which also claimed the life of a passing French cyclist.

He described how he tried speaking a few words of English to the seven-year-old girl, but that when she failed to respond, he thought she was dead.

It came as Eric Maillaud, the chief prosecutor in Annecy, and the French magistrate leading the inquiry, said that they would travel to the UK Thursday to meet with British police officers and speak to relatives of the al-Hilli family.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Philippe D said that he had been hiking up the forest road of Combe-d'Ire near the village of Chevaline with two female friends when a cyclist suddenly came careering towards him.

The cyclist, a British RAF veteran who was the first person to discover the murder scene, yelled "something terrible's happened" as the two crossed paths just 50 yards away from the al-Hilli family's BMW estate car.

"He looked panic-stricken, shocked," Philippe D said of the British cyclist. "He tried to explain in pidgin French what had happened. "He wanted to phone the emergency services. I didn't understand whether he had a mobile or couldn't get a signal."

Philippe D said that he at first assumed there had been an accident, but that when he reached the murder scene a few moments later, he was "scared stiff" by what he saw. "There was no sound. It was like a horror film," he said. "One of those TV series where everything starts with a murder.

"Except this time we were the actors and we didn't have the remote control to change the channel switch. "When we saw that nobody answered our calls and apparently everyone was dead, we were totally spooked." The hiker, who called the emergency services, then saw seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilli lying in the recovery position just yards from the BMW, where the British cyclist had placed her.

Philippe D said: "She was lying down and motionless, but she didn't looked bashed up. I could see no blood, one couldn't see where she had been hurt. She was a few yards in front of the car.

"She didn't respond to our calls. I clapped my hands but she didn't react. I even said a few words in English as I saw the car was registered in Great Britain. But nothing happened. For me, she was dead." Once the police and medics arrived, Phillipe D and the British cyclist were taken to the gendarmerie for questioning.

While the unidentified RAF officer told police that he had seen a dark green four-wheel drive vehicle and a motorbike coming down the hill shortly before he arrived on the scene, the French hiker said was "totally sure" he had "heard nothing and passed nobody – not a car or a motorbike".

He returned to the crime scene on Sunday to help police reconstruct the precise timing of the shooting and their arrival. Police sources cited by French media say that one type of weapon, a 7.65 calibre pistol, was used in the attack. However, it is unclear whether one or two guns or gunmen were involved.

Around 120 French police officers are working on the investigation, split into five or six teams of which each is investigating a different theory. Mr al-Hilli's brother, Zaid, has denied claims that they were involved in a family feud over their father's legacy.

Meanwhile, tourists who stayed at the same campsite as the victims in the days leading up to their death, corroborated claims that Mr al-Hilli had frequently disappeared alone in his car without his family.

Dutch tourist Eli Draaisma, 64, from Veememdaal, in Holland, also said that a "strange" man of Eastern European appearance was scouring every corner of the Village Camping Europa site in Saint Jorioz, three hours before the al-Hilli's left for a neighbouring campsite.

"He was dressed all in black, black trousers, black long-sleeved shirt," he said. "He seemed to be searching the campsite, looking everywhere, but he didn't look like a tourist. He definitely didn't look like he belonged, he was not on a holiday."

Zainab has regained consciousness after being placed in an artificial coma but remains heavily sedated and has not yet been interviewed by police. Her sister Zeena, four, who survived the massacre after hiding under her mother's skirt, has been flown back to the UK and is being looked after by social workers.

 

[Westwood]

France shooting: Zainab al-Hilli bound for UK after Alps hospital release

Zainab al-Hilli, one of the British girls whose family was shot dead in a massacre in France, has been released from hospital and has left the country bound for the UK, police said today.

The crime has baffled police. Photo: PA/ AFP/ GETTY IMAGES/ JULIAN SIMMONDS

By Telegraph Reporters

12:45PM BST 14 Sep 2012

Authorities in Grenoble said the seven-year-old girl, whose family was shot dead by a mystery gunman at the French Alps beauty spot, left hospital just after 8:15am (0615 GMT).

Police declined to confirm where the girl, who is feared to have been left blinded by the attack, has travelled to or who was with her.

It is understood she was accompanied by British police and is travelling back to the UK. She was being treated in hospital and was intubated due to massive bruising between her skull and her brain.

Police are hoping she will be able to provide key witness evidence, although she is not expected to be interviewed for a few days at least.

French police today dismissed reports that a British car being "driving erratically" on a motorway near Annecy was being linked to the case.

Zainab survived the attack despite being shot in the shoulder and pistol-whipped around the head, but there are concerns her health is deteriorating and she could suffer permanent brain damage. The facial injuries she suffered were reportedly so horrific that she could also lose her sight in one eye.

Her father, Saad al-Hilli, 50, from Surrey, was killed last week along with her mother, Iqbal al-Hilli, 47, and grandmother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, on a secluded forest road near Lake Annecy, in south eastern France. Her sister Zeena, four, survived the attack.

The Hillis were killed in their BMW car last Wednesday, while a French cyclist believed to have passed at the time of the slaughter was also shot dead. One of the first witnesses on the scene this week described it as “like a horror film”.

Yesterday the former RAF pilot who discovered the bodies of the British family told how he was forced to leave Zainab bleeding on the ground while he went to get help. Brett Martin, 53, was the first person to arrive on the scene moments after the four were shot dead described how the scene resembled a Hollywood movie set

Police have described how Zainab has been left with horrific injuries: "She suffered multiple facial injuries that caused two subdural hematomas and a fractured orbital bone. "She was beaten around the face with great force, the trauma was immense."

A subdural hematoma is a potentially life-threatening brain injury and the orbital bone surrounds the eye. It has emerged that Mrs al-Allaf's son, Haydar Thaher, 46, allegedly attacked his parents and threatened to kill them in the past. Mr Thaher has a history of mental health problems and has not been seen by neighbours for a month.

Mrs al-Allaf, a Swedish passport holder, and her son had been living in southern Stockholm when she joined the Hilli’s on their French holiday. Her husband, Mr Thaher’s father, Abdul al-Saffar, died last year from kidney problems. Neighbours at their flat said they had not seen the son for about a month while Swedish relatives said they believed he had travelled to England.

Documents from a local criminal court in Stockholm reveal Mr Thaher was arrested on numerous occasions for alleged violent and threatening behaviour against his parents. However he was never charged because they refused to testify against him, wanting help for him instead, papers from the Sodertorns court show.

His parents allegedly told police they believed he was schizophrenic, that he had terrorised them since 2001 and threats were made on a daily basis. In 2004 he was said to have screamed at his father: “I want to kill you and there is nothing you can to about it" to his father before hitting him.

The following year he allegedly attacked his father with his own walking stick and screamed:"I can beat you and I can kill you" in Arabic. In 2006 he allegedly attacked his mother. This week the victims' family spoke for the first time of their shock and devastation over the deaths.

Ahmed Al-Saffar, the brother-in-law of Mrs al-Allaf and Iqbal’s uncle, said: “The victims’ family and I are heartbroken by this shocking crime and we have been touched by the expressions of sympathy from people all over the world.

“We hope that those responsible for the deaths of our loved ones are brought swiftly to justice.” Eric Maillaud, the chief prosecutor in Annecy, and the French magistrate leading the inquiry, have travelled to Britain today to meet police officers and speak to relations of the Hilli family.