Single gun used to kill British family

11 Sep 2012, 8:50 pm   -   Source: AAP

Police say a single weapon was used to kill a British family and a passing cyclist in the French Alps.

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French police say a single weapon was used to kill four people in the Alps, and investigators are again scouring the scene of the crime.

A police official said on Tuesday that a handgun was used to kill three members of a British-Iraqi family on a camping holiday on the shores of Lake Annecy and a local cyclist.

Saad al-Hilli, his dentist wife Ikbal, from Surrey in southern England, and her mother, a Swedish-Iraqi, all died.

The fourth victim, French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, is thought to have been killed after stumbling across the crime.

They were found with two gun shots each in the head. The reason for the killings remains unclear.

Detailed ballistic analysis of 25 spent cartridges found at the scene revealed they all came from a 7.65mm automatic pistol.

The couple's two young daughters survived and police are still waiting to interview the elder, aged seven, who they hope will be able to describe what happened after she came out of a coma.

The four-year-old girl couldn't tell investigators what happened. Police plan to question her seriously injured seven-year-old sister.

Meanwhile, police are combing through security camera footage in an attempt to identify the escape route taken by the shooter.

As the inquiry grows in complexity - the victims had direct links to four different countries - police in southeastern France have still been unable to trace a dark-coloured 4x4 vehicle spotted near the crime scene.

Officers have also searched woodland and remote hikers' huts for any trace of the killer.

A British man who alerted police to the shootings is said to have seen a car, and a motorcycle a few minutes later.

"That does not mean that this is necessarily the car involved," prosecutor Eric Maillaud cautioned.

At first glance, the small parking area - about an hour on foot through forest along a narrow potholed road from the tiny village of Chevaline - would seem the perfect place to commit a crime.

But such a location would also have limited the possible escape routes.

For any assassin, an escape by road would have posed a high risk of being spotted by a walker or cyclist resulting in them being intercepted before reaching a main road.

The scene of the shooting is about 15 minutes' drive via Chevaline to a road leading to the resort town of Annecy and other major routes.

For now, investigators are pinning their hopes on seven-year-old survivor Zainab al-Hilli who has just emerged from a medically-induced coma to help her recover from a fractured skull.

Police spoke briefly with her after she regained consciousness on Sunday and are waiting for approval from medics before they can question her further.

Officers regard her as the key witness after younger sister Zeena, four, was unable to give any information. But it is not yet known how her injuries may have affected her ability to recall the horrific events of last week.

Campers say Saad al-Hilli moved his family from one campsite to another two days before they were gunned down.

A Dutch couple believed the group planned to spend a week at the three-star Village Camping Europa site in St Jorioz but they left after a two-night stay.

The campers said father-of-two Saad al-Hilli acted strangely during that time, leaving his family alone several times each day.

They also noticed an unusual man wearing a smart jacket visiting while the al-Hillis were there.

The family moved into neighbouring site Le Solitaire du Lac last Monday before the brutal attack in a remote spot close to Lake Annecy on Wednesday afternoon.

Staff at Village Camping Europa described the family as "very quiet, nice people".

A manager, who refused to give her name, said: "They came to stay with us on Saturday evening and left on Monday.

"That was pre-planned - they were here for just a few days."

She dismissed suggestions that Saad al-Hilli behaved oddly during his stay, adding: "There was nothing strange. All families leave the campsite at all sorts of times to run errands, go to the shop, organise activities, that sort of thing."

And she said comments about a mysterious man described as appearing "to come from the Balkans" were "ridiculous".

She said: "That was an Italian man who was here. He left and got on his plane as was planned."

French police are examining two mobile phones found in Mr al-Hilli's car and are understood to be examining the hard disk for a laptop.

British officers are working with their French counterparts to try to unravel the mystery surrounding the four deaths.

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