An 11-year-old girl from a British family has been shot dead in France while her father is seriously injured, according to reports.
A neighbour is said to have shot at the girl on Saturday evening (June 10) in a hamlet called Saint-Herbot, while she played in her garden, near the city of Quimper in the western province of Brittany.
Her eight-year-old sister was left in “shock”, local media reported. The Foreign Office is providing assistance to her family.
A spokesperson said: “We are providing consular assistance to a British family following a shooting in France and are in contact with the local authorities.”
The suspect, who is a 71-year-old Dutch national, has been arrested, according to local prosecutors.
Carine Halley, the state prosecutor in Quimper, said the child was dead and her father, who is about 40 years old, was seriously injured when police arrived, reported The Times.
Halley said he was taken to hospital in a critical condition and initial evidence suggests “the suspect suddenly emerged armed with a gun and fired several times towards the victims”, the newspaper reported.
He is reported to have then shut himself in his house with his wife.
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The Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie tactical unit was called to the scene and a negotiator persuaded the neighbour and his wife to give themselves up before they were arrested, the prosecutor reportedly said.
A local resident told French media that the younger child raised the alarm, running to neighbours shouting: “My sister is dead, my sister is dead”.
The Times said the family-of-four are believed to have lived in their current home for about four or five years and that the two girls were born in France.
The exact reasons for the shooting had yet to be verified, but it was understood it came off the back of an ongoing dispute between neighbours over a plot of land between two properties.
Marguerite Bleuzen, the mayor of the nearby village of Plonevez-du-Faou, is reported to have said the family were well-known and came to the village fete.
