Key witness in Alps shooting still sedated

10 Sep 2012, 8:02 pm   -   Source: AAP

The elder child wounded in a shooting in the French Alps that killed her parents and grandmother is still under sedation, French authorities say.

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The elder of two child survivors of the French Alps shooting remains under sedation, unable to speak to investigators hoping she can help them unravel the mystery surrounding the attack, a prosecutor says.

Zainab al-Hilli, 7, is recovering from a fractured skull and a bullet wound in the shoulder which she incurred in the September 5 attack in which her parents, grandmother and a passing French cyclist were killed.

"When the doctors give us authorisation we will be able to interview her in hospital but for the moment they are not allowing it," Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud told AFP on Monday.

"She was in an induced coma which she was brought out of on Sunday, but she remains under sedation. It is a normal process."

With apparently little headway being made in the hunt for the killer or killers of the all-Hilli family and Frenchman Sylvain Mollier, Zainab's potential testimony has taken on enormous importance for detectives probing the quadruple murder on either side of the English Channel.

Her four-year-old sister Zeena survived the attack unscathed after hiding in the back of the family car in which her parents and grandmother were killed, but has not been able to provide any significant information about what happened in a forest car park near the village of Chevaline.

Meanwhile, the oldest victim of the French Alps shooting was the maternal grandmother of the two girls who survived the attack, Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud confirmed on Monday.

"Evidence gathered in Britain has enabled us to establish that the woman was the maternal grandmother," Maillaud said.

Investigators had struggled to establish the identity of the Iraqi-born Swedish national who was killed alongside her daughter, Ikbal, son-in-law Saad al-Hilli and Frenchman Sylvain Mollier in an execution-style attack on September 5.

The identities of Saad and Ikbal al-Hilli had been established quickly because one of the survivors, four-year-old Zeena, was able to tell police that they were her parents.

The little girl however had said she did not know the elderly woman very well.

Zeena returned to the UK after two relatives - reportedly an aunt and uncle - travelled to France over the weekend alongside a British social worker and family liaison officers from Surrey Police.

The youngster is now under the care of the authorities and the social services.

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