Alps Killings: No Clues From Terrified Girl

A four-year-old girl who witnessed her family being brutally killed in France has been unable to offer clues about the killer's identity.

Saad al Hilli's daughter Zaina was found hiding in the footwell of the bullet-ridden BMW. She was not found by police for eight hours.

The little girl was able to give the first names of her dead parents, and her seven-year-old sister Zehab, who was badly beaten and shot in the shoulder.

But she did not know the identity of the other woman found dead in the car. It was initially reported she was Mr al-Hilli's mother-in-law.

Prosecutor Eric Maillaud told a news conference that Zaina had not seen the attackers.

"She didn't bring anything to the inquiry," he added. "The little girl was terrorised. She rushed under her mother's legs. She heard, but she didn't see anything."

Dr Jennifer Wild, a consultant clinical psychologist at Oxford University, told Sky News Zaina will be in a hyper-aroused state.

"All she probably wants is to be cuddled, but now she has to think about what happened. They'll have to be very sensitive and take into account she's just four years old.

"Being in a hyper-aroused state affects memory. She would have had a sudden increase in cortisol in her body and, given the nature of what she saw, she will have developed horrific memories.

"So she will be giving police a traumatised-little-girl's view of the world and they need to be very gentle with her because she'll only remember the worst parts.

"The way trauma affects us also depends how gruesome the trauma is. She clearly knew something really bad was happening and as a result she became very scared.

"As soon as we're scared our bodies go into a fight-or-flight mode to prepare ourselves to flee the danger or, as in this case, choose to hide.

"She will need a lot of support early on as everything will be so confusing for her."

Trauma psychologist Dr James Thompson told Sky News the best way to elicit information from the girl would be for her to be questioned by hospital staff rather than police.

"It will be a particularly skilled task, you have to cope with a traumatised young patient and there will also be policemen outside who desperately want to find things out," he said.

"The best thing is to combine those tasks and to have nurses reporting on what the children say as they will be able to more gently find out what happened."

Britain's French ambassador, Sir Peter Ricketts, said the French authorities had acted professionally in dealing with the killings and insisted both girls were receiving the best of care.

"We have to do everything possible to find the perpetrators of this terrible crime. Any assistance or help they require, we will give them.

"We’re following-up information to be in touch with family members and it is normal practice to make contact with them as soon as possible.

"It will then be up to them whether they want to come here and if they choose to do that, of course we will help them."