Thursday round up
We're closing this blog now but rolling coverage will continue tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a summary of Thursday's key events.
- French authorities said they have no real leads as to the motive for the shooting of five people in the Alpine village of Chevaline, which left four adults dead and one girl critically wounded.
- They revealed a sixth person, a four-year-old girl, was found alive at the scene, hiding under bodies in the back of the British registered BMW. She was not found until eight hours after the shooting, when forensic experts examined the crime scene.
- Three of the four victims were shot in the middle of the head with a semi-automatic pistol, leading to fears the attack may be a contract killing. Police said they were not sure how the fourth fatality, believed to be the children's mother, died.
- The scene was discovered by a cyclist, who is a former Royal Air Force officer, shortly before 4pm on Wednesday.
- French media have named all but one of the victims. They are Saad al-Hilli, an Iraqi-born British citizen from Surrey, his wife Iqbal, an elderly woman with a Swedish passport, French prosecutor Eric Maillaud said, while Mr Hilli's wife held an Iraqi passport. The other man killed was French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, a local man and father of three children.
- The Hillis' elder daughter Zainab, seven, was found shot and beaten. Another daughter Zeena, four, was found hiding under bodies in the car. The elderly woman killed is thought to be their grandmother.
- Surrey police confirmed they are assisting the French investigation.
- The family's friends and neighbours expressed shock and sorrow at the shooting. Jack Saltman said they were nice and considerate neighbours. He also cryptically mentioned that Hilli had recently discussed a problem with him, which he had passed on to the police. He refused to elaborate further, adding it could be irrelevant.
- French president Francois Hollande and David Cameron pledged that the authorities would get to the bottom of the tragedy.
Security service link
Hilli was known to the security services and was put under Metropolitan Police Special Branch surveillance during the second Gulf war, according to the Daily Mail.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said they could not comment because Hilli had not yet been formally identified.
Here's an extract from the main report for Friday's Guardian on today's developments in the investigation into the shooting.
French police believe a deeply traumatised four-year-old girl who hid for eight hours under the bodies of her slain relatives, and her critically injured sister may hold the key to the gruesome murder of four people in an Alpine beauty spot.
The two girls were under extremely high protection as police hunted for the gunman who shot dead her parents and grandmother as well as a passing cyclist on Wednesday afternoon in what officials described as an "act of gross savagery".
The four-year-old, named in Britain as Zeena al-Hilli, asked for her family after she was finally pulled from the scene of carnage, "terrorised, motionless, in the midst of the bodies", said a French official. British consular officials, despatched from Paris, were trying to comfort her and her older sister Zainab.
Here's the Guardian's report from Hilli's neighbourhood in Claygate, where friends said nothing in his life points to any reason for him being the victim of a targeted killing.
Key event
French president Francois Hollande has said the authorities will "do our utmost to find the perpetrators", following the shooting in the Alps, PA reports.
Hollande, making his third visit to the UK today, joined David Cameron in pledging to get to the bottom of the tragedy.
The prime minister described the deaths as "terrible", adding: "I have spoken to the British ambassador in France and consular staff are working very hard so that we do everything we can... and to find out what happened in this very tragic case.
"Obviously the faster we can get to the bottom of what happened, the better."
Addressing journalists at ParalympicsGB House in Westfield this afternoon, Hollande offered his sympathy to those affected by the killings.
I expressed my emotion earlier today to the British people in relation to the terrible deaths.
Both the French and the British family have been impacted by this terrible event and we will do our utmost to find the perpetrators, to find the reasons behind that event.
Our police are co-operating and everything that is found will be shared.
Cameron said he and Hollande were united in their desire to find those responsible for the deaths.
We obviously have discussed the tragic case, the terrible killings, of the British family near Annecy.
Consular staff are working very hard so that we do everything we can to help those poor children.
We will stay in close contact. All the support that the British government and the Foreign Office can give to those two children, of course we will make sure they get that help, whether in France or whether there is extra help we need to send to make sure they have everything they need.
My colleague Kim Willsher, who attended the press conference at the Palais de Justice in Annecy today, said Maillaud admitted the modus operandi of the killer had been "strange".
The gunman had used a semi-automatic pistol, requiring the trigger to be pulled for each shot, and not a shotgun as previously reported. The car had not been sprayed with bullets, but the killer had specifically targeted the windows, leaving the bodywork unscratched.
The driver, the elderly woman in the rear of the car - thought to be the children's grandmother - and the passing cyclist who appears to have no connection with the family, had all died from shots to the head. It was not yet known how the younger woman - believed to be the children's mother - had died.
There was no evidence of theft and no obvious motive.
"At the moment we know strictly nothing, " he said. All hypotheses are being explored but right now we have no idea. It's impossible to say who was killed first or what exactly happened."
Lt Colonel Benoît Vinnemann, head of the local gendarmerie, said the beauty spot at the top of Route de la Combe d'Ire was not known as a haunt for delinquents or drug dealers or that there was a problem with guns in the area. He admitted the murders were a mystery.
"We have a profusion of ideas and lots of hypotheses all of which have to be looked at. We don't, at the moment have any leads," Vinnemann said.
"I have been a gendarme for a long time and have seen some things, but I have never come across anything like this."
We'll bring you Kim's full report from Chevaline later this evening.
PA has more background details about Hilli.
Matthews said they moved to the UK in the 1970s after their mechanical engineering business was looked upon "unfavourably" by Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party.
He worked as a freelance computer-aided design engineer and helped with designs for the Airbus A380 aeroplane, Matthews added.
Hilli's accountant Julian Stedman said he ran a company, Shtech Ltd, registered to his home address.
Online records show Hilli was also a director of a Swindon-based company offering "business services, aerial photographers and surveys services".
He was also believed to have links with Guildford-based Surrey Satellite Technology. The company directed inquiries to the Foreign Office this afternoon.
Saltman has also spoke to the Press Association about Hilli's children.
They are quite beautiful kids and so well behaved. He was an extraordinarily nice man and helpful. His wife was a delightful person and I can't think why anybody would want to harm them.
My wife is in floods of tears, she's heartbroken. When I stop to think about it I'll cry for those little kiddies. What sort of life are they going to have now?
Shiv Malik has more from Hilli's neighbour Jack Saltman in Claygate, Surrey.
Saltman, 76, said his neighbour had told him he was going away on holiday to France.
“He said he's going to try and get another holiday in France, which he obviously liked, he had a caravan.. before the children went back to school. He asked me to keep an eye on the house.
“He was a very tactile loving father. He loved to gather the girls up and cuddle them .... they would go running at him and he'd catch them inn his arms and kiss them .... He adored them.
“His wife was very quiet.. she wasn't as gregarious as Saad. But she would always stop for a chat particularly with my wife.”
Saltman, a former broadcast and print journalist, said she was a dentist who wanted to register in England and that he'd put her in touch with the local practitioner in Claygate who was happy to have her sit in.
“She was a wonderful housewife and mother as far as I could see.”
“My wife had a hip operation and the first card we got wishing her a good recovery, this was only five or six weeks ago, was from Saad's wife... They were just nice people. It's just profoundly heart breaking.”
Saltman also told the Richard Bacon show on Radio 5 Live:
I know one little thing which I am not prepared to speak (about) at the moment. I will tell the police about it.
It was something Saad said to me before he went, but at this stage I do not feel I can disclose that, but I will tell the police exactly what he told me before he left.
Amelia Hill has spoken to experts, who say that with "swift and skilled help", the girl found hidden in the car could go on to live something close to a normal life.
Julie Stokes, a consultant clinical psychologist and founder of childhood bereavement charity Winston's Wish in London, says:
Inevitably there is deep trauma and children need good quality care very quickly but if they receive that, and have good alternative care, then they can achieve their potential and beyond."
Reporter Shiv Malik has been in Claygate, Surrey, from where he's filed this report:
James Matthews, 53, describes himself as Saad al-Hilli's friend and said that he'd come down to Claygate to dispel some rumours that had cropped up about the Hillis.
Matthews, who currently lives in Kingston-upon-Thames, said the two had met through their children, who had gone to playgroup together.
Hilli was a British engineer who had lived in the well-heeled Surrey village for over 20 years, said Matthews. This length of residency was confirmed by a local shopkeeper, who said that the Iraqi-born engineer had been a customer of his since his shop opened 21 years ago.
Matthews said that although he was born in Iraq, he'd gone to school in Pimlico in London, and had gone on to become a computer aided design (CAD) engineer.
He said Hiili had worked for the firm Surrey Satellites, adding: “I knew he worked on [designing] the kitchen of the European Airbus.”
Matthews said his friend would holiday in France or sometimes in a nearby camp site. “He'd just get in the caravan and go ten miles down the road.”
He described Hilli as a very loving father, and said his wife was born in Baghdad. Matthew believed that she had worked in dentistry in Abu Dhabi at some point.
Matthews said he had talked to the police but didn't want to comment on what he'd told them. “I think if there had been something bubbling up like that [a conspiracy] I would have known about it.”
The two, he said, had spent time together during their free-time between work as engineers. He said that Hilli had helped him fix his car to pass its MOT and that they had both built the workshop in Hilli's garden.
“He'd have an idea and then design it,” Matthews said. “He designed a trailer for his tandem so he could tow both his kids."
Shiv reports that Hilli's house is large and detached with a mock tudor frontage and two garages. The property is set back from the road and partially hidden by two large hedges.
French prosecutor Eric Maillaud describes the scene of the shooting.
Neighbour George Aicolina remembers the shooting victims.
This is Alex Olorenshaw. I'll be taking over the blog for an hour or two.
Here is the latest Guardian story on the shooting, which mentions that French media have named the driver as Saad al-Hilli, an Iraqi-born British national.
PA say his family have been named by neighbours as wife Iqbal and daughters Zainab, seven, and Zeena, four.
Hilli and his family, from Claygate in Surrey, had been holidaying in a caravan at the Le Solitaire du Lac campsite in nearby Saint-Jorioz, since the end of last month.
Summary of press conference
• Three of the four victims - the driver, the elder of the two women in the car and the cyclist - were shot through the middle of the head.
• The victims were discovered by a British cyclist, who formerly served in the RAF.
• The seven-year-old girl found lying in the road suffered head fractures and was shot in the shoulder in a "violent attack". The public prosecutor, Eric Maillaud, said the girl was induced into a coma after being found but her health was now "improving".
• The four-year-old girl found under the bodies in the car told police she heard noise and was scared.
• Police defended their failure to find the four-year-old girl earlier, saying they were at pains not to disturb the crime scene and jeopardise the chances of catching the perpetrator. They also said there was only one child seat in the car and a helicopter with a heat-seeking capability did not discover her.
• The owner of the car was a 50-year-old man born in Iraq, who has lived in the UK since at least since 2002, Maillaud said, based on a passport that had been lodged with the campsite. He said at this stage he could not be certain the owner was the driver. The prosecutor said a Swedish passport and an Iraqi passport had been found in the car.
• The identity of the dead cyclist was confirmed as Sylvian Mollier, aged 45, married with children.
More from press conference
The British cyclist who discovered the bodies was ex-RAF. He has a house nearby, police say.
Police do not know whether anything has been stolen from the car.
The public prosecutor describes the place of the shootings as a "picnic spot" and a place people go for walks, but adds that he cannot say whether they ended up in the spot deliberately.
Eric Maillaud says he cannot give information about the identities until the DNA testing is done.
He appears annoyed about the repeated questions from the journalists and on that note wraps up the press conference.
All possibilities being considered
A police officer (Lieutenant Colonel Benoit Vinnemann, I think) says police combed a large area around the car but night fell quickly.
The scene was so dramatic ... it was way beyond TV fiction.
He says nothing can be ruled out:
Was the family the target? The cyclist? Were they both collateral to something else? ... Everything's possible.
Four-year old heard noise and was scared
The only thing the four-year old has said is that "there was noise and she was scared", says the public prosecutor.
A helicopter with a heat-seeking capability did not discover her in the car, says Maillaud.
He says the girls are both being protected.
The bodies of the dead will be removed from the scene this evening and taken to hospital. The results of the post-mortem will be released tomorrow afternoon, says Maillaud.
Identity of dead cyclist confirmed
The public prosecutor confirms the identity of the dead cyclist as Sylvian Mollier, born in April 1967. He was well known to the mayor and enjoyed cycling, says Maillaud. Mollier had children, he says.
Dead appear to be of Iraqi origin
Regarding the identity of the victims, the public prosecutor says.
Everyone wants to know the identity, we have to be extremely careful.
He says that the campsite was shown the passport of the owner of the car.
This person was born indeed in Iraq ... [he was] naturalised British, has been living in the UK at least since 2002 .... We are sure we know who is the owner of the car ... Regarding the eldest person we have just discovered a Swedish passport and we have also discovered an Iraqi passport.
The owner was born in 1962 - he was 50-years-old. He appears to be saying he cannot be certain that the owner was the driver. There were no ID papers for the younger women or the girl, says Maillaud.
Three victims shot through the head
The public prosecutor says the police still have no idea as to the motive for the killings, only "hypotheses".
Three of the four dead had been shot in the middle of the head - the driver, the elderly woman and the cyclist - but the autopsy will determine the cause of death, says Maillaud.
Traces of 15 bullet shots were found. They do not know at this stage how many weapons were used.
Discovery of girl in car
The investigators had no idea there was another girl in the car, says Maillaud. There was only one child seat he says.
The public prosecutor says they did not want to interfere with the crime scene and affect the chances of finding the perpetrator.
The girl was found curled up under the legs of one of the bodies. She is now in a psychiatric hospital and a nurse sat with her throughout the night says Maillaud.
Girl was shot in shoulder
The health of the seven-year old girl is "improving", says Maillaud. She suffered head fractures and was shot in the shoulder in a "violent attack". He said she was induced into a coma after being found but her health is now "progressing".
French prosecutor's press conference
The public prosecutor, Eric Maillaud, begins by describing the events as "traumatic".
The phone call received by the emergency services was made by a British cyclist at 3.48pm, he says.
The cyclist saw a little girl about to faint. He called the emergency services, then he discovered the cyclist who appeared to be dead. He broke the driver's window of the car and saw three people who looked dead.
Dead driver
The dead driver of the BMW is reported to be a 50-year-old man from Claygate, in Surrey. The Guardian is not naming him until it has confirmation of his identity.
William Hague says thoughts with survivors
The foreign secretary, William Hague, says his thoughts are with the family.
William Hague (@WilliamJHague)Terrible, tragic shooting in France. British Embassy team on the scene. Our thoughts are with the young girls who survived and the family
September 6, 2012
Surrey police asssisting French authorities
My colleague Vikram Dodd has passed on this information. After reports named one victim as coming from the Surrey area, Surrey police have confirmed they are assisting the French investigation.
In a statement Surrey police said:
Surrey Police is currently assisting the French authorities and liaising with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office following the deaths of four people near Annecy in Southern France yesterday.
This is an ongoing investigation being carried out by the French police and we are unable to confirm any details about the incident.
British deputy ambassador on his way
The deputy British ambassador will go to visit the girl in hospital in Grenoble before going to the scene of the shootings in Chevaline, LeDauphiné Libéré reports. The girl, believed to be six or seven, is said to be "pulling through" after being beaten and suffering a fractured skull.
French journalist Stéphane Bouchet, from Annecy newspaper Dauphiné Libéré told the BBC the family had been saying at the campsite since the end of August.
Police explain discovery of four-year-old girl
The French police have been trying to explain the failure to find the terrified four-year-old girl, who was hiding among the bodies in the car for eight hours, until midnight on Wednesday when the forensics team arrived.
Lieutenant Colonel Benoit Vinnemann said:
We had instructions not to enter the car and not to move the bodies. Firemen, technicians and doctors all looked into the car through the holes in the windows but none of them saw the girl.
She didn't budge. She stayed under the legs of her mother. ... She was so close to her mother they appeared as one mass.
The Evening Standard quoted a police source as saying:
The reconstruction of the crime scene meant that everything had to remain in place.
This meant doors and windows had to remain shut until forensics officers and ballistics specialists arrived from Paris.
Windows had bullet holes in them but had not fallen in. The fear was that they would if the doors were opened.
Guns in France
Police have not recovered the murder weapon but believe an automatic pistol was used. Fully automatic guns are banned in France.
France 24 reported in July that there are at least 7.5m guns in legal circulation "although experts believe there are millions more illegal weapons on the streets and are apparently not too hard to come by". It continues:
According to those experts, nearly 15,000 illegal military style weapons like Kalashnikovs are in circulation around France’s poor suburbs. A Kalashnikov reportedly sells from around €1,500 on the black market. The Balkan countries that make up the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East and North African countries like Libya are thought to be the main sources of arms coming into France. “It’s a complex phenomenon,” David-Olivier Reverdy of police union Alliance, told France 24. “These are clandestine weapons, so by their nature they are hard to track down. It’s hard to know who is delivering them and how they are getting into the country.
Police inspecting family's caravan
A news website in France said investigators had begun inspecting a caravan used by the family at the campsite Le Solitaire du Lac, at Saint-Jorioz, the Press Association reports. One woman said:
I saw the two women yesterday with the two little girls collecting apples. Everything seemed normal, but I didn't know them. It was the first year that they had been seen here. It is terrible. The atmosphere is heavy, nobody is speaking.
Dead cyclist named by French press
Le Messager reports that the name of the dead cyclist, according to its information, is Sylvain Mollier, from Ugine, approximately 16km from Chevaline. It says he worked in metallurgy for Cezus, a metal manufacturing company.
His wife, worried when he did not return from his cycle ride, went to a local police station with a photograph of her husband and officers made the link.
Elder girl 'pulling through'
The girl aged six or seven found lying in the road near the car with serious injuries is now out of danger, public prosecutor Eric Maillaud said. The Mirror quotes him as saying:
She seems to be pulling through. She was beaten and has a fractured skull at least. There are no witnesses. Only she may be able to tell us what happened, if she can manage to do that. We don't know when we will be able to question her and I would imagine she is in a state of shock.
Dead cyclist's wife contacted police
The cyclist found dead near the car worked for a firm based some miles away, the Press Association reports.
His wife, worried when he did not return from his cycle ride, alerted the authorities, without making a link to the killings. She went to a local police station with a photograph of her husband. Officers quickly made the link and her husband was identified as the fourth victim.
Condition of elder girl
The elder girl, believed to be six or seven, who was found lying injured in the road near the BMW, was reportedly beaten and left for dead but had not been shot.
Earlier, a source reportedly told French journalists that she had been hit by at least three bullets.
She was taken by helicopter to Grenoble hospital, where she was in a serious but stable condition.
Four-year old girl was "terrorised"
Public prosecutor Eric Maillaud said the four-year old girl found alive under dead bodies in the car was "terrorised, immobile, in the midst of the bodies". He said:
As soon as the first forensics began, we were able to open the vehicle, and it was at that moment we discovered the little girl, around four years old, that nobody had seen, because she hadn't moved, completely in shock and completely frozen.
Location of shootings
The map below shows the location of the shootings.
The family had been staying at a campsite in Saint-Jorioz with their two daughters.
The BMW people-carrier was found in a secluded car park near the village of Chevaline, close to Lake Annecy.
With a population of little more than 200, Chevaline lies within the boundaries of one of France's largest national parks, the Parc Naturel Régional du Massif des Bauges.
"A lot of people are coming here to spend holidays and use the lake because we have a beautiful landscape," Leila Lamnaouer, a French journalist, told Sky News. "A lot of English people live here because they love the place."
Four-year old girl found alive
Members of a British family are believed to be among the victims of a shooting spree in France:
A four-year old girl has been found alive after eight hours hiding in the back of a British-registered car in France containing three shooting victims.
The girl, who has not been named, was found around midnight on Wednesday night under the bodies of the two women in the back of the car, a French prosecutor said. A second girl, believed to be six or seven, was found lying injured in the road near the BMW people-carrier. Police believe all of those in the vehicle to be part of a British family on holiday.
A fourth person, a male cyclist who police believe was "in the wrong place at the wrong time", was also found dead at the scene.
No arrests have yet been made, no weapon has been found and police are unclear as to the motive.
We will be providing live updates on the investigation, including coverage of the press conference expected in France this afternoon.