French police to question Swiss gunman over French Alps killing of British family

French police investigating the murder of a British-Iraqi family in the French Alps in September have asked to question a Swiss gunman who killed three women in a Swiss village on Wednesday.

Reuters/Robert Pratta

Police in the French region of Haute-Savoie made the request to their colleagues in the Swiss canton of Valais, the neighbouring region where the gunman went on a shooting spree in the village of Daillon, a spokesman for police in Geneva told the news agency AFP.

The 33-year old gunman was wounded during an exchange of gunfire with police and was taken to a hospital, where he was in intensive care.

Officials said the shooter, whom police did not identify, had spent time in a psychiatric hospital in 2005 and was known to police as a drug user.

Police had previously confiscated weapons from the 33-year-old when he was placed in a psychiatric ward.

Police said he used two weapons in the Valais shooting spree: a historic Swiss military rifle known as a mousqueton and a shotgun.

French police are still investigating the murder of a British-Iraqi family in the French Alps, on the other side of the border from the Swiss canton.

Saad al-Hilli, his wife Iqbal and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, were all found dead inside their estate car near Lake Annecy in Haute-Savoie on September 5, along with a French cyclist who police believe was an innocent bystander.

The couple's two young daughters survived the attack.

Investigators have so far failed to report any progress in solving the case.