France shooting: alleged violent past of son of Alps murder victim

Another plot twist

The son of one of the victims of the British family massacre in France had allegedly attacked his parents and threatened to kill them in the past, it has emerged.

Seven-year-old survivor 'remembers' Alps shooting

Seven-year-old Zainab, the eldest daughter of the British-Iraqi couple shot dead in the French Alps last week, started speaking to investigators after coming out of an induced coma, a British daily has reported.

On Monday the Times quoted an unnamed source as saying Zainab had “expressed fear, said she was terrified and seemed to remember what she had been through”. The same source added that police had “been able to speak to [Zainab] but this was just an initial meeting. They could not go into any detail and the child was very tired.”

The Times exclusive also highlighted a series of “secret meetings” that the slain father took part in days before the grisly murders, quoting people who had observed the family at the Village Camping Europa, one of the two campsites the family stayed in during their French holiday.

Zainab had been in hospital in Grenoble after being bludgeoned over the head and shot in the shoulder during the attack.
French state prosecutor Eric Maillaud had previously said

French Alps shootings: single weapon was 7.65mm pistol, say investigators

The British family murdered while on holiday in the French Alps were all shot with a single weapon, according to investigators.

Ballistic and forensic experts who have examined the bullet casings at the scene say they were fired from a 7.65mm automatic pistol, a medium calibre that is not as powerful as modern 9mm pistols.

Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Iqbal, 47, and her mother, Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were each shot twice to the head in their car at a beauty spot near Lake Annecy, in the Haute Savoie, last Wednesday.

Syvain Mollier, 45, a French father of three who appears to have come across the bloodbath while cycling up the mountain path, was shot up to seven times, including twice in the head.

The Hillis two daughters were the only survivors. The eldest, Zainab, aged seven, was shot in the shoulder and beaten around the head, leaving her with a fractured skull. She has been brought out of a medically induced coma and police are waiting to interview her.

Her sister, Zeena, four, who hid for eight hours in the rear footwell

French Alps shootings: police evacuate victims' neighbours

And, the plot thickens.
The 4 year old is not certain of her Grandmother's identity?
Strange....

French police have confirmed that the elderly woman found murdered in the car was Iqbal al-Hilli's mother.

Detectives had struggled to identify the 74-year-old Swedish passport-holder. Zeena, who survived by hiding underneath her dead mother's skirt for eight hours, was able to confirm her parents' identity, telling investigators who showed her photographs: "That's Mummy … and that's Daddy." However, when asked about the older woman, the traumatised child told them it was someone she had not seen often, and of whose identity she was uncertain

Could this have anything to do with the "Man in the suit" reported to have been seen around their camp site?

Surrey police are evacuating neighbours of the murdered engineer Saad al-Hilli after finding "items" at the family home in Claygate, Surrey.

Neighbours living close to the property were prevented from returning to their homes as army bomb disposal officers were called to the scene. The police investigation appeared to focus on a shed or workshop at the bottom of the garden

French Alps shootings: hiker says he thought girl was dead

A French hiker who was one of the first to reach the forest clearing where a British family was murdered has described how the seven-year-old girl, who was shot, badly beaten and left for dead at the scene, showed no sign of life.

The witness, named only as Philippe D, said: "She wasn't responding to our calls. I tapped her hands but she did not respond. I even spoke a few words in English, because I saw the car was registered in Great Britain. But there was nothing. To me, she was dead."

He then went back down the hill leading to the Alpine beauty spot near Lake Annecy to call the emergency services, who discovered the Iraqi-born British engineer Saad al-Hilli, 50, his dentist wife, Iqbal, 47, and her 74-year-old mother dead from bullet wounds in the car. Each of the victims had been shot twice in the head.

The body of a French cyclist who had been shot seven times, twice in the head, was found nearby.

The first to discover the bloodshed was a British former Royal Air Force pilot who was cycling up

Alps shootings: Zainab al-Hilli brought out of coma

Update on the shootings in France

A seven-year-old girl shot and injured in an attack in the French Alps which left her parents dead has been brought out of a coma.

French prosecutor Eric Maillaud said Zainab al-Hilli, from Surrey, is still under sedation and will not be able to be questioned for several more days.

But police hope she will will eventually be able provide more information about the shootings.

Mr Maillaud said her four-year-old sister Zeena has returned to the UK.

Zeena lay undiscovered