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HUNTING

British woman, 67, dies after being shot during French wild boar hunt

A British woman died after being shot by her partner during a wild boar hunt in France on Sunday, in what a prosecutor described as a "dramatic accident".

Published: 17 October 2022 08:47 CEST
British woman, 67, dies after being shot during French wild boar hunt
A 'hunting in progress' sign in France, where safety of hunts is an ongoing debate. Photo by GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP

The 67-year-old was wounded “above the heart” and taken to hospital in Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, where she died around midday, prosecutor Nicolas Heitz said.

Her 69-year-old partner was taken into custody and a manslaughter investigation has been launched.

While the exact circumstances of the shooting were still to be established, tests on the shooter had already established that he not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, said Heitz.

The hunting party had been crossing a field in the Goudelin area, and included around a dozen hunters and two guests, the prosecutor said.

It is the latest in a series of accidental shootings that have sparked renewed debate about the safety of hunting in France.

Every year, passers-by and hunters themselves are shot, sometimes fatally, during the season for la chasse, which many rural dwellers describe as “the wild west”.

However proposals earlier this year to ban alcohol during hunts sparked fury from hunters. 

Member comments

  1. It is clear from other news outlets that the man carrying the gun did so while it was loaded, with the safety catch off and being carried in a dangerous manner. I realise that the editor of The Local is very much against hunting, but I really think this should not be allowed to get in the way of accurate reporting of a stupid accident. More rigorous reporting and editing please.

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CRIME

French teen dies from heart failure after knife attack near school

A 14-year-old girl has died of a heart attack in eastern France after her school locked down to protect itself from a knife attacker who lightly wounded two other girls, an official said on Friday.

Published: 20 April 2024 08:58 CEST
French teen dies from heart failure after knife attack near school

The teenager “was rescued by teachers who were very fast to call the fire department. She died at the end of the afternoon,” education official Olivier Faron said.

The girl’s middle school in the village of Souffelweyersheim closed its doors on Thursday afternoon after a man stabbed two other girls aged 7 and 11 outside a nearby primary facility.

“Sadly this pupil underwent an episode of very high stress that led to a heart attack,” Faron said.

A mother outside the middle school on Friday morning said her son in first year of secondary had also been scared during the lockdown the previous day.

“Whereas in the primary school they made it more like a game, perhaps here it was a little too direct,” Deborah Wendling said.

“He thought there was an armed person in the school. They could hear doors slamming, but in fact it was just other classrooms locking down.”

Faron defended the teachers.

READ ALSO: Schoolgirl threatens teacher with knife as tensions rise in French schools

“There is no perfect solution,” he said.

But “we will analyse in depth what happened. If there are lessons to be taken from this, we will take them.”

The two girls hurt in the attack were discharged from hospital on Thursday evening with only light wounds.

Police have arrested the 30-year-old assailant, and a probe has been opened into “attempted murder of minors”, the prosecutor’s office said.

It was not immediately clear what had motivated him, but it did not appear to be “a terrorist act”, it said.

He was “psychiatrically fragile” and appeared to have stopped his medication.

The incident follows a series of attacks on schoolchildren by their peers, in particularly the fatal beating earlier this month of Shemseddine, 15, outside Paris.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Thursday announced measures to crack down on teenage violence in and around schools.

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