World

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Gendarmes block access to a killing site near Chevaline, French Alps, Wednesday Sept. 5, 2012. French authorities say at least four people have been shot to death in a forest in the Alps.An official with the regional administration for the Haute-Savoie region says three of the bodies were found in a BMW registered in Britain. (AP Photo/Alexis Moro)

French investigators say they still don't know the reasons for the killings of what appears to be a family of British vacationers found in a car in the French Alps.

Prosecutor Eric Maillaud says the attacker or attackers violently beat and shot a 7-year-old girl found near the car. He said Thursday that the girl will be operated on and her life is out of danger.

He says a 4-year-old girl who huddled beneath the corpses and travel bags for more than eight hours in the back seat is in fine physical health.

Maillaud says three of the four victims were shot in the head. The fourth victim remains in the car pending further investigation.

He says they were found by a British former air force officer who was cycling in the area.