ANNECY, France, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- French police are investigating the shooting deaths of four people in a forest clearing near the town of Annecy in the French Alps, they said.
Saad al-Hilli, 50, an Iraqi-born British engineer, was found dead in his car with the bodies of his wife, Iqbal, 47, and her mother, 74. Each had been shot twice in the head. The al-Hilli's 7-year-old daughter Zainab was found alive but shot, beaten and unconscious, and 4-year-old daughter Zeena was found unhurt but huddled in the back seat foot well. The body of a French bicyclist, shot seven times, was found nearby, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Tuesday.
Investigators at the site, popular with hikers and campers, are dealing with conflicting claims that al-Hilli had left his family several times during their stay, that the family mysteriously moved from one campsite to another two days before the attack and that al-Hilli had been visited by a man described by witnesses as Italian or "eastern European-looking," the newspaper said.
Zainab was placed in a medically induced coma at Grenoble University Hospital, and doctors said it will be several days before she can be questioned.
British police are working with French officers to unravel the mystery, the newspaper said.
