French judge to visit victims' home

12 Sep 2012, 1:40 pm   -   Source: AAP

A French judge and prosecutor will travel to the UK as part of an investigation into the murder of a family and a cyclist in the French Alps.

A French judge and prosecutor will travel to the UK as part of an investigation into the murder of a family and a cyclist in the French Alps.

They will join a small team of French investigators already in Britain to help find out what led to the shooting of British residents engineer Saad al-Hilli, his wife and mother-in-law, as well as a French cyclist, near Lake Annecy a week ago.

Meanwhile, three more people were found in a car following a shooting on the French island of Corsica yesterday, although there was no immediate evidence of any link.

A witness who came upon the aftermath of the Alps massacre likened the carnage to a horrific film scene.

The man, named only as Philippe D, 41, a hiker, told Le Parisien newspaper how he came across the dramatic scene after setting out with two female friends to go walking.

He recalled how the group was met by a "panic-stricken" British cyclist making his way down from the murder scene as they drove up a hill in the Combe d'Ire forest, near Chevaline.

Arriving at the car park, Mr D saw the bodies of al-Hilli, 50, his dentist wife Iqbal and her mother in their bullet-ridden BMW.

A fourth body, that of Sylvain Mollier, 45, the French cyclist who apparently stumbled across the attack, lay on the ground. Zainab, seven, was lying by the car.

"There wasn't a single sound," the walker said.

"It was like in a film. One of those television series where everything begins with a murder, only this time we were the actors and we did not have the remote control to change the channel."

"I immediately understood.

Zainab, who was shot and so brutally beaten that doctors placed her in a medically induced coma, is now seen as one of the key witnesses.

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

Her younger sister Zeena, four, escaped unscathed by cowering behind her mother as bullets rained down. She has flown back to Britain with carers.

It is unclear whether the second shooting, on the island of Corsica, could be linked to the attack in the Alps.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the victims were not known to be British.

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