I was so scared ... first words of coma daughter, 7

IN her first haunting words since she was brought out of her coma, the girl of seven who survived the French Alps massacre told detectives: ‘I was so scared. What is happening?’

Despite being heavily sedated, Zainab AlHilli said she was ‘still frightened’ by what she saw.

The Surrey schoolgirl was pistol-whipped around the head and shot in the shoulder by whoever who killed her parents and grandmother. One theory is that her life was spared because the killer ran out of bullets.

But her memory does not appear to have been damaged and detectives are confident she will be able to provide vital clues about Wednesday’s atrocity. A respected French radio station yesterday reported Zainab’s first distressing words after emerging from her medically-induced coma in hospital.

Her maternal aunt, Fadwa Al-Saffar, a pharmacist who recently finished a PhD at the university of Reading, was at Zainab’s bedside when she woke.

It is thought Mrs Al-Saffar may now take custody of Zainab and her four-year-old sister Zeena, who lay hidden for eight hours under her dead mother’s skirt in the family’s BMW.

Eric Maillaud, the chief prosecutor leading the inquiry, said: ‘Zainab has been in a coma and is under sedatives and cannot be questioned for now.

‘The members of her family who came are by her side. Without doubt, it is their responsibility to inform her of the death of her family.

‘We hope that the age of seven is the age of reason and that she will be able to provide descriptions about the number of people, whether men or women, the colour of their clothes, and who could have committed this.’ He added: ‘We hope she will provide lots of information, but the interview will be an extremely delicate one.’

Security remains tight around the Grenoble university Hospital where Zainab is being kept under police guard.