The man who discovered the bodies of four people shot dead in the Alps describes it as a ‘Hollywood scene’, adding that he feared ‘some nutter’ could come and shoot him next.
Brett Martin, from Sussex, helped Zainab al-Hilli, seven, after the attack which claimed the lives of her parents, her grandmother and a local man.
The former RAF pilot said he initially believed there had been a car accident after coming across the scene while cycling in the forest area.
He saw three bodies in the car, and once he realised a crime had taken place, he was worried who might still be around.
He said: “There was a lot of blood and heads with bullet holes in them”.
He told the BBC the car’s engine was running when he arrived.
“I became a little anxious,” he said. “I then started scanning the woods to see if there was some nutter or who knows what with a gun and I was going to be the next person shot.”
He added: “At first I thought there’s been a terrible accident between a cyclist and a car because there was a cyclist on the ground, more or less in front of the car, but there were things that didn’t quite match because the cyclist’s bike wasn’t beside him, so as the minutes went on I started to change my opinion.
“I’ve never seen people who’ve been shot before…but 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…it became quite obvious, taking stock, that it was a gun crime.”
He moved Zainab away from the car in case it began moving after he found her “stumbling” around, bleeding and “moaning”.
He then said he faced a “dilemma” about leaving Zainab to fetch help as his mobile phone had no signal.
Zainab, who suffered serious skull fractures after being shot and beaten, came out of a medically-induced coma on Sunday and will be questioned by police as soon as she is fit.
Her four-year-old sister Zeena has returned to the UK and is under the care of social services.
She lay undiscovered in the car for eight hours after her father, her mother, her 74-year-old grandmother, and a local cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45, all died.
French investigators, who said about 25 gun shells had been retrieved from the area, travelled to England on Thursday to liaise with British detectives who have been searching the al-Hilli family home in Surrey.
At a Surrey police station, French prosecutor Eric Maillaud told reporters French investigators believe that “in all likelihood the origins, causes and explanations are here in this country”.