Have been following on Sky news and this is a strange happening, will be interesting to establish the motive?
By Gamal Fahnbulleh, Sky News Reporter
Friends and neighbours of the British family gunned down in the French Alps have been speaking about their shock at their deaths.
Saad al Hilli and his wife Iqbal have been named as the victims by locals near their home in Claygate, Surrey.
Their two children, who survived the attack, were named as eight-year-old Zehab and four-year-old Zaina.
Mr Al Hilli's wife's mother is also believed to have died in the attack near Lake Annecy, in the Haute-Savoie region.
Family friend Zaid Alabdi said: "It took some time for the couple to have kids. They were dreaming to have a girl, then they had two.
"It was a really wonderful thing for them to have. They loved them to bits. They are just normal people. They harmed no one and I don't know anyone who would want to harm them.
"It's just so tragic for them to have had this problem and for the kids to be left without their parents."
On Thursday night a minute's silence was observed during the local parish meeting. Others have spoken of a well-liked family.
Neighbour George Aicolina said: "The father was very much in love with the two little girls - they were his joy.
"They were very clever, very bright, very inquisitive. One was very artistic and it will be very sad for them to live their lives without their parents.
"They were a very quiet family. You could never predict that something like this would have happened to a family like them. It's a sad day."
Sky's Ashish Joshi, speaking from outside the family home, said: "Nearly all of the neighbours have come forward to say 'we knew them, we liked them, we went to them with our problems and they gave us advice, we knew their children'.
"Everyone is willing to speak about them, that gives you an indication that this was a family that was very much integrated into this community here.
"The people here have absolutely no idea how this family could end up in such a horrific situation so many miles away in France."
Police are yet to enter the home but have secured the surrounding area. They are waiting for the formal identification of the bodies to be carried out by colleagues in France.
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