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

France shootings: Three victims shot in head

Three of the four victims of a shooting in the French Alps were shot in the head, a French prosecutor has said.

A man, named by UK neighbours as Saad al-Hilli, 50, from Surrey, and an elderly woman were found dead in a car. A French cyclist, found nearby, was also shot dead.

An automatic pistol was used, and the killer "targeted" the victims rather than indiscriminately firing into the car.

Zainab, found shot outside the British-registered car, has been transferred to a hospital in the city of Grenoble where she has been placed in a medically-induced coma. She is due to be operated on again.

She was shot once, and had head fractures. "She suffered a violent attack," Mr Maillaud said