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Dublin: 6 °C Thursday 23 May, 2013

Girl, 7, who survived Alps shooting wakes from coma

The girl’s younger sister has returned to Britain as police continue to probe the shooting that has shocked Europe.

Eric Maillaud, the prosecutor in the case, has confirmed that the girl who survived Wednesday's shooting is out of a coma.
Eric Maillaud, the prosecutor in the case, has confirmed that the girl who survived Wednesday's shooting is out of a coma.
Image: Chris Ison/PA Wire/Press Association Images

A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD British girl who was seriously wounded in a French Alps shooting came out of an artificial coma Sunday, while her younger sister returned to Britain, a prosecutor said.

“The little girl has come out of the artificial coma but she is under sedation and her speech is not yet audible,” Annecy prosecutor Eric Maillaud told AFP. “She is in a better state of health now.”

Her four-year-old sister, another survivor of Wednesday’s quadruple murder, is now back in Britain, he added.

Seven-year-old Zainab al-Hilli is a key witness, being the only one who could detail the number of killers and describe them.

Her younger sister, who spent eight hours hidden behind the bodies of her mother and an elderly relative in the backseat of their car, has said she heard shots but saw nothing.

Zainab was put in a state of artificial coma to allow her to recover. She suffered a fractured skull after probably being pistol-whipped and was shot in the shoulder.

She will he questioned by investigators specialising in child witnesses.

The girls’ father Saad al-Hilli, mother Ikbal and an elderly female relative were gunned down in their car on a forested Alpine road. A passing cyclist was also killed.

- (c) AFP 2012

Earlier: Four-year-old survivor of Alps shooting to return to Britain

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Comments (16 Comments)

  • I hope she makes a full recovery.
    I also hope they have an army of protection around her for the time being.

    Reply
  • This entire story could be straight out of a movie. I feel for those kids, hippie the killers are brought to justice.

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  • God love them,an incident like that would screw up most adults.i hope they recover.

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  • That’s some good news for a change,lets hope she recovers fully

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  • poor little angel hope she has round the clock protection …

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  • nice to hear some good news. Hope the two little ones fully recover

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  • As Shanners said its like something out of a movie script, really weird. Poor mites hope they will get over this trauma…eventually maybe, will be very difficult as their parents are both dead and they probably witnessed it. Talk about terror.

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  • This will scar their lives forever but lets hope they have good people looking out for them always.

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  • What kind of animal beats a young girl….she’s only a baby….the poor mite will need a lot of love and support to get thru this!

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  • Witness protection? let’s hope they catch the perpetrators before this happens.

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  • Poor little thing – cannot imagine what her next few days of questioning will be like not to mind the rest of her life.

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  • “He went to a remote spot on a country road as though he had been told to meet someone there. Waiting for him was not a disturbed relative who lost his temper, but a ruthless professional hit man who killed the three family members with a bullet to the head, and then the cyclist who might be a witness.”

    I have a much better lead than that.

    He had arranged to meet Mollier there since he was interested in the work he was doing. He also knew that his killer was with him,
    and thought he might need protection, not realizing that his killer was intent on killing him, and not defending him from any other threat.

    However the likelihood of the Daillon killer(Cedric) also being the random killer of Xavier Balanger
    (Jul 2011) and the Al Hilli family too, is high.

    Since he is in custody and charged/about to be charged with the four deaths in Daillon, it may be a long time before he is persuaded to admit to killing the Al Hilli family.

    He does not have a car, but if I know anything about the earlier facts, he had a woman accomplice, whom he was with when he first met
    the Al Hillis, at a place near my home in UK, of which I was aware.
    The woman accomplice has a car and did the driving and has now gone to ground. I have an idea that the detectives on the case are aware of her identity, but she is not to be found.

    He would have been alone at xmas since the Al Hilli killings would have been too much for her to take,
    which is why he went out and killed again after a drinking bout.
    Many people get upset on their own at that time of year, and he was no exception.

    That makes 9 killings and 2-3 serious injuries over the course of 18months. The lady driver accomplice needs to be found. She is British and has done a runner.

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  • Contrary to other speculation I have read he was a Sunni Muslim.

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  • Dad from Iraq? God knows what if was running from. Shame his kids paid the price.

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    • Lamb 10/09/12 #

      He moved to the UK after Saddam took over his families nuclear facility in Iraq and a family member was threatened. He opened a facility in the UK that produced material for use in nuclear energy production. He recently returned to Iraq to see if he could take the facility back over. He was under surveillance by the US and UK authorities after one of his staff was arrested under terrorism charges linked to Al Qaida. The older women in the car was not known to his family. She lived in Sweden.

      Reply

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