FRANCE (CNN) -- For hours the small girl hid, unnoticed, in a car where the bodies of two British women and a man killed in a mysterious shooting were discovered by police in eastern France.
Only about 4-years-old and probably paralyzed by fear, she remained among the corpses as investigators waited for crime scene technicians to arrive so that the car could be opened, CNN affiliate BFM-TV reported.
Local prosecutor Eric Maillaud told reporters that investigators had failed to notice the young girl because she didn't move during the several hours that they waited for the forensic experts to arrive.
The child was "probably terrorized, completely concealed, completely immobile amid the corpses," he told reporters.
"This little girl is doing well. She was examined and has been hospitalized. Her life is not in danger, but she has experienced something awful."
A 7-year-old girl who was wounded in the shooting had been found by police outside the car hours earlier and taken to a hospital.
A French cyclist was also discovered shot dead near the British-registered car, and a large number of bullet casings were scattered around. The cyclist, Sylvain Moliet had lived in the region for 20 years and was on paternity leave, BFM-TV reported.
The drama unfolding in a remote, wooded area near Chevaline, in the Haute-Savoie area of eastern France, has gripped the media in France and Britain.
But police have said little yet about what may have been behind the grisly shooting near Lake Annecy, a popular tourist spot.
Details of the little girl's ordeal emerged a day after the bodies were discovered in and around the car on a lonely stretch of road.
Authorities also released the nationalities of the victims Thursday. The three that were found dead in the car were British, as are the two young girls who survived, BFM-TV reported. The cyclist was French.
The UK Foreign Office said it was aware of the incident and was looking into it.