Items at Alps murder family home safe
2012-09-10 17:04
Claygate - Suspicious items discovered at the home of a British family shot dead in the French Alps were "not hazardous", British police said on Monday.
Army bomb disposal experts were called in to examine the items found at outbuildings in the garden of the property at Claygate in Surrey, southwest of London, as a precautionary measure, the police said.
Police had evacuated neighbouring homes and cordoned off two roads while the bomb squad checked the house of Iraqi-born Saad al-Hilli.
"Surrey Police can confirm that items found at an address this morning in Oaken Lane, Claygate, are not hazardous," police said in a statement.
"A bomb disposal unit was called to the scene to carry out an assessment as a precautionary measure," it said, adding that residents who were evacuated as a precaution were now being allowed to return home.
After spending just over two hours at the scene an army Royal Logistics Corps bomb disposal van left the scene along with another police vehicle and police re-opened the road, the AFP photographer said.
Police said the house and gardens would remain cordoned off while a search of the property continues.
British media reports said the search focused on a shed at the bottom of the garden.
The development was the latest twist in the killings of Hilli, his wife, his mother-in-law in their car at a beauty spot in eastern France last Wednesday. A French cyclist was also killed in the attack.
