Alps Shootings: Injured Girl Returns To UK

The schoolgirl injured in the attack that left her father, mother and grandmother dead in the Alps has left hospital in France.

Seven-year-old Zainab al Hilli is returning to the UK as detectives continue to investigate the killing near Lake Annecy.

The girl was placed in a medically induced coma after she was shot in the shoulder and badly beaten in the massacre which killed her three relatives last week.

The child, who is seen as one of the key witnesses in the case, left hospital at about 8.30am, accompanied by British police.

Zainab's state of health is understood to have improved in recent days, allowing her to travel back to the UK.

Her departure follows that of her younger sister, Zeena, who returned to the UK after escaping the brutal attack unscathed.

The four-year-old survived by cowering in the car but she was only discovered eight hours after the killings.

Meanwhile, detectives have dismissed reports they are searching for looking for a black Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4 with British number plates, which was reportedly seen driving on the French A39 near the scene of the attack on September 5.

The bodies of Saad al Hilli, 50, his dentist wife Iqbal, 47, and her elderly mother were discovered in their family's BMW in a remote car park near Lake Annecy at around 4pm on September 5.

Next to the vehicle lay the body of Sylvain Mollier, 45, a French cyclist who apparently stumbled across the attack.

Another cyclist - the first to arrive at the scene - has described how he spotted Zainab "stumbling" around, bleeding and "moaning" near the car.

Brett Martin, 53, likened the carnage to a set from TV crime series CSI: Miami.

The former RAF pilot from Sussex said he biked to the top of a hill in the Combe d'Ire forest, near Chevaline, only to find himself faced with a bloodbath.

"As I got a little bit closer, a very young child stumbled out on to the road and at first I thought she was actually just playing with her sibling because she sort of looked, from a distance, as if she was falling over, larking about like a child would," he told the BBC.

"However, as I approached her it was obvious that she was quite badly injured and there was a lot of blood on her.

"As I got even closer, I then saw the car with its engine revving and its wheels spinning. It seemed at that moment in time like there had been a terrible car accident."