Cohen alerts police to double killing

Ali G star Sacha Baron Cohen has escaped injury after he was almost hit by a stray bullet used in a double suicide.

The 32-year-old comic raised the alarm after discovering the bullet hole in the window of his £420-a-night suite at Tel Aviv's David Intercontinental Hotel yesrerday morning.

Cohen, 32, said he thought he had heard a shot at around 5am, but he told police he had not attributed any importance to it until he woke and saw his 22nd-floor window had been hit. No other guest heard the noise.

The hotel's security guard called police, and the searched nearby rooms until they came accorss across the bodies of two cousins, aged 18 and 24.

According to Israeli newspaper Ha'Aretz, a pathologist said each of the men had shot themselves with an Army-issue M-16 rifle belonging to the younger cousin.

The dead men have not been named at the request of the family.

Published: 31 Dec 2002