11-year-old British girl shot dead in France over apparent land dispute
CTV
An 11-year-old British girl was shot dead in Saint-Herbot, a hamlet in Brittany, western France, on Saturday, according to the local prosecutor.
An 11-year-old British girl was shot dead in Saint-Herbot, a hamlet in Brittany, western France, on Saturday, according to the local prosecutor.
The girl’s parents were seriously wounded in the gun attack. Her 8-year-old-sister escaped and was found “unharmed but in a state of shock,” Quimper prosecutor Carine Halley said in a statement on Sunday.
The family were in their garden when their 71-year-old Dutch neighbour appeared with a firearm and started firing several times in their direction before shutting himself in his house with his wife, authorities say.
Police intervened at 10 p.m. local time. The 11-year-old was found dead and her father sustained a life-threatening head injury, while her mother was also injured but is not in critical condition, Halley said.
An hour later the Dutch man and his wife surrendered and were taken into custody.
“We thought they were playing with firecrackers,” Yannick, a neighbour who heard the gunfire, told CNN affiliate BFMTV.
“The youngest girl came running to the neighbours shouting: ‘My sister is dead, my sister is dead,’” Yannick said.
