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An elderly British woman was killed in a “dramatic” shooting incident during a wild boar hunt in northern France on Sunday. The 67-year-old received a bullet wound “above the heart” while crossing a cornfield in Goudelin, Brittany. She was taken to a hospital in Saint-Brieuc, where she died from her wound at 12.20pm, according to the local prosecutor Nicolas Heitz.
Reports said the bullet was fired from a gun belonging to a 69-year-old man, who was part of the hunting party.
The rifle was said to be slung over the man’s shoulder with the barrel pointing towards the back, when it went off.
In a statement, the prosecutor’s office said: “The hunters were advancing through a field of corn silage when one of them, a 69-year-old man, in circumstances yet to be determined, fired with his shoulder-mounted rifle, barrel pointing towards the back.
“The shot reached his companion … and whose bullet caused a penetrating wound above the heart.”
The 69-year-old has been taken into custody for questioning and a manslaughter investigation was launched.
Initial medicals test on the man indicates that he was under the influence of alcohol.
An autopsy will be carried on Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office said.
This is not the first shooting tragedy to have occurred this year in France.
In February and shortly before France’s presidential elections, a 25-year-old woman was tragically shot by a teenage hunter.
The woman was on a walk with a friend near Aurillac in the heavily forested Cantal region.
She was hit by a stray bullet fired from a rifle belonging to a 17-year-old girl and died instantly.
The teenager was part of an official hunting party and had just received her licence the year before.
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The Office Français de la Biodiversité (OFB) recorded 83 incidents during last year’s hunting season.
This compares with 232 accidents during the 1999-2000 season.
This is of course due in part to the fact that Covid restrictions were in place for much of the season, but incident numbers have been falling gradually for years, with 131 being reported in 2010.
The OFB states that this is also down to the “evolution of hunting permits, of training, of education campaigns and of the rules.”
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