LONDON: The first person on the scene of a quadruple murder in a quiet wooded area of the French Alps described it as something from a Hollywood movie, with bullet-ridden bodies in a car whose engine was still running and blood everywhere.
Former British air force pilot Brett Martin had been out for a cycle ride last Wednesday when he came across another cyclist and three members of a holidaying British family who had been shot dead on a remote mountain road in the Annecy lake area.
“It seemed to me just like a Hollywood scene. And if someone had said ‘cut’ and everybody got up and walked away that would have been it. But unfortunately it was real life,” said Martin, in an interview with BBC TV.
The victims in the BMW car were Saad Al-Hilli, an Iraqi-born engineer, his wife and mother-in-law.
The brutality and unexplained nature of the killings, which police say were carried out using a single semi-automatic weapon, have intrigued media in Britain who have given the story blanket and prominent coverage.
French prosecutors have named Hilli’s work in the aerospace industry or a family feud as possible motives.
“There was a lot of blood and heads with bullet holes in them. It’s the sort of thing you would never in your life expect to come across,” said Martin.
The first thing he said he saw as he approached the scene was a bike lying on its side and a young child, Hilli’s seven-year-old daughter Zainab, who had stumbled out into the road.
He initially thought she was playing but, as he got closer, realized she had serious head injuries and was covered in blood.
“She was prone on the road, moaning, semi-conscious and she was lying in a position that was in front of this car with its wheels spinning,” said Martin.
“She was very severely injured because she was in and out of consciousness.”
He moved her out of the path the car before turning to the cyclist, before quickly deducing he was dead.
Witness says Alps shootings like Hollywood movie
