THREE people have been found dead in a British-registered car in the French Alps after a shooting which also left a young girl fighting for life, it was reported tonight.

The Foreign Office said it was aware of the shooting in the Haute-Savoie region, in which a cyclist is also thought to have died.

Reports said the injured girl, aged between five and eight, was gravely ill in hospital in the city of Grenoble after being found wounded on a road near the village of Chevaline.

Initial reports suggested the girl had also died, but a French prosecutor has said she is in a critical condition in intensive care.

Three of the bodies were discovered in a BMW in a car park near a forest this afternoon, according to French authorities, who said the cyclist’s body was lying nearby.

A Foreign Office spokesman: “We are aware of the reports of the shooting and we are looking into these urgently.”

The website of local newspaper Le Dauphine Libere said the bodies were found near Lake Annecy.

The occupants of the car were a man, in the front seat, and two women found in the back seats.