fb-pixelBritish police search for bomb in house of family targeted in Alps - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

British police search for bomb in house of family targeted in Alps

CLAYGATE, England — In a further twist to a story of murder and mystery that has seized headlines for days in France and Britain, police summoned an army bomb squad Monday to search a workshed at the home of a British-Iraqi family killed last week in the French Alps.

Houses within 300 feet of the home of the victims, the family of Saad al-Hilli, in an affluent village within the London commuter belt, were evacuated during the bomb squad search. The bomb alert ended after four hours with a police all-clear.

A spokesman for the Surrey County police said the bomb unit had been requested after ‘‘a potentially explosive substance was found’’ in a workshed at the rear of the home. But a police statement issued after the search said nothing hazardous had been found.

Advertisement



The bomb alarm came on the fourth day of a police search of the home for clues to the killings in France, in which three members of the family were shot to death. A fourth victim, a French cyclist who appeared to have encountered the killings while in progress, died in the bloody episode near the town of Annecy.

French and British police officers have focused on the crime scene in France and at the Claygate home of the victims — Hilli, 50, his wife, Iqbal, and her mother, 74.

All three were found dead in the family’s red BMW hatchback in a forest clearing, with gunshot wounds to the head. Two daughters, Zainab, 7, and Zeena, 4, survived.

New York Times