Strict French gun controls at work

Three of the four victims killed at a French Alpine beauty spot were shot in the middle of the head, prosecutors said today.

The family including parents, an older woman and two children were found in a bullet-riddled BMW near Chevaline in France.

The owner of the car was named as Iraqi-born Saad Al-Hilli, 50, who lived in Claygate, Surrey.

Mr Al Hilli is understood to have been the secretary of a Wiltshire-based aerial photography company, AMS 1087, since 2007.

The woman, believed to be the mother of the two girls, was reportedly 50 years old while a 77-year-old Swedish woman was also killed in the car.

They were discovered by a French cyclist named as Sylvain Mollier, a father-of-three in his 40s, who overtook a British cyclist on the approach to the crime scene yesterday afternoon. The second rider, a former serviceman in the RAF, then raised the alarm after finding the bloodbath.

Detectives discovered 15 spent bullet casings around the car, which was locked and the engine running when it was discovered.

France recently tightened its laws on illegal firearms amid a worrying rise in the use of guns by criminals. In July a gunman using an assault rifle shot dead two people and injured five at a nightclub in Lille after being turned away.

In March, Mohammed Merah, who claimed to be linked to al-Qaeda, killed four people at a Jewish school and three soldiers in southern France. He was killed after a 32-hour siege in Toulouse.

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To be fair, the fact that the driver was an Iraqi involved in aerial photography may suggest an "international" involvement