Potential explosive found at Hilli home

10 Sep 2012, 8:00 pm   -   Source: AAP

Police have found a 'potentially explosive substance' at the British home of the family shot to death in the French Alps last week.

Investigators have found a "potentially explosive substance" at the home of a British family shot dead in the French Alps last week, a source close to the inquiry says.

The source did not say what kind of substances were involved.

British police said there was "concern" around items at the property and cordoned off the area.

Neighbouring homes were evacuated, while an army bomb disposal unit was also sent to the house.

Neighbours living close to the property in the affluent village of Claygate were prevented from returning to their houses as detectives examined the mock-Tudor house for clues.

Members of the media were also moved back around 200 yards.

Attention on the property intensified as police in Annecy in France waited to question seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilli, who has regained consciousness following the attack that left her parents dead.

Her father Saad al-Hilli, 50, was murdered in his car alongside his dentist wife, Iqbal, on Wednesday while the family holidayed in the picturesque region.

Iqbal al-Hilli's mother also died in the shooting along with Sylvain Mollier, 45, a French cyclist who apparently stumbled across the attack.

Zainab's younger sister Zeena, four, who survived after she hid behind her mother, flew back to Britain with carers on Sunday.

Police plan to look at aspects of Saad al-Hilli's life to try to find a motive for the murders and also speak with his brother, Zaid Hilli.

Investigators have disclosed that Saad al-Hilli's brother has approached British police to deny any feud with his sibling over an inheritance.

Officers first entered the al-Hillis' family home on Saturday after a team of four French investigators, led by Colonel Marc de Tarle, arrived in the UK.

It is believed detectives are looking into Mr al-Hilli's professional life for possible clues. He worked as a contractor for a satellite technology company in Surrey.

One theory is that shots could have been fired during a bungled armed robbery, with Mollier being a witness to the crime.

But speculation about other possible motives, including a pre-planned attack by professional hitmen, remained rife.

Some media reports have suggested that Saad al-Hilli, an engineer who left Saddam Hussein's Iraq several years ago, was known to the security services and was put under surveillance by Metropolitan Police Special Branch during the second Gulf war.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said they could not comment. But it is understood there is no link between the deaths and any national security issues.

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