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French police detain suspect over 2012 shooting of British family

A suspect was taken into custody on Wednesday, when their house was also searched, by gendarmes investigating the murders in the French Alps in September 2012 of three members of a British family and that of a cyclist.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

French police have arrested a suspect over the unsolved 2012 murder of a British family and a French citizen in the Alps, reports BBC News.

Few details were given, but police said a man was in custody "in order to do verifications regarding his schedule".

Saad al-Hilli, his wife Iqbal, Mrs al-Hilli's mother Suhaila al-Allaf and a cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, were found shot dead on a road near Lake Annecy.

The al-Hillis' two young daughters survived the attack.

Zeena, then aged four, was discovered hiding under her mother's body inside the family car.

Zainab, seven at the time, was found with serious head injuries after being shot and beaten.

The have since been given new identities and in 2020 were interviewed again to try to make progress on the case.

Read more of this report from BBC News.