Nearby countries join Alps shooting probe

8 Sep 2012, 8:37 pm   -   Source: AAP
Investigators into the murders of a British family in the French Alps are pinning their hopes on the wounded seven-year girl. (AAP)

Investigators into the murders of a British family in the French Alps are pinning their hopes on the wounded seven-year girl. (AAP)

France has enlisted the help of neighbouring countries to hunt for the killers behind the brutal slaying of a British family in the Alps.

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France has enlisted the help of neighbouring countries to hunt for the killers behind the brutal slaying of a British family in the Alps, prosecutors say.

"All border countries have been mobilised," prosecutor Eric Maillaud told French digital television channel I-Tele on Saturday.

"Italy is an hour and a half away, Switzerland an hour away. Investigators have asked for help of all neighbouring countries," he said.

Maillaud also said French police who have travelled to Britain to investigate the murder will also question the brother of the killed man, who has already talked to British police to deny reports the two siblings were involved in a money feud.

"Obviously the brother will be questioned," he said, adding that "all those who knew the victims will be questioned".

The brutal attack on Wednesday saw Saad al-Hilli, a 50-year-old Briton born in Iraq, shot dead along with his wife Ikbal and his 74-year-old mother-in-law in a forest car park in an Alpine tourist area.

A local man, 45-year-old Sylvain Mollier, was also killed after apparently stumbling on the attack on the family's car.

The couple's seven-year-old daughter Zainab, shot and badly beaten on the head during the attack, was left for dead while a four-year-old daughter Zeena survived and hid under her dead mother's skirt for eight hours, undetected by French police who arrived on the scene.

French prosecutors said on Friday one of their lines of investigation focused on a reported money dispute between Saad al-Hilli and his brother.

The brother had voluntarily gone to British police after the murder and denied the two were quarrelling.

A former Royal Air Force pilot who was the first to arrive on the murder scene as he was bicycling in the area reported seeing a "green or other dark-coloured four-wheel drive car," Maillaud said.

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