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Girl who survived French Alps shooting returning to Britain

A four-year old girl who survived a shooting that killed her parents in France will go home to Britain on Sunday, a police source says.

British and French detectives continue to search the shooting victims' family home south of London
British and French detectives continue to search the shooting victims' family home south of London Reuters/Neil Hall
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The girl, named Zeena, hid under her mother’s skirt when her father, 50-year old British-Iraqi Saad al-Hilli, his wife and his mother-in-law were shot dead inside their car at Chevaline, near Lake Annecy in eastern France, on Wednesday.

A police source told news agency AFP that Zeena will go back to the UK with an uncle and aunt who went to France to get her.

Zeena’s seven-year old sister, Zainab, suffered serious head and shoulder injuries and remains in an induced coma at Grenoble University Hospital.

Yesterday, the public prosecutor at Annecy, Eric Maillaud, told journalists that autopsy results revealed all those killed were shot twice in the head, leading to suspicions that it was a targeted murder.

A 45-year old local cyclist who apparently stumbled upon the shooting was also killed.

French and British detectives will spend a second day searching the family’s home at Claygate, south of London, in a bid to find a motive for the killing.

The police source says Saad al-Hilli’s brother, Zaid, will be questioned again.

There had been suggestions that a financial dispute between Zaid and Saad led to the shooting, but detectives say Zaid went to UK police on Thursday to proclaim his innocence and to help with the investigation.

Maillaud stressed Zaid is being interviewed along with his extended family, and that investigators are working on several theories.

 

 

 

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