There have been increased demands for regulation of boar hunting after a number of deaths in recent years
(Picture: AFP/Getty Images)A British woman was killed after she was shot through the chest by a boar hunting companion, reports in France say.
The 67-year-old woman was walking through a cornfield in Goudelin, Brittany with a dozen fellow hunters when she was hit by a single bullet fired by a 69-year-old man.
She was rushed to Yves-Le Foll hospital in Saint-Brieuc by firefighters but passed away from her injury at 1pm on Sunday.
“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,” according to a press release published by the local prosecutor’s office.
“The shot reached his companion … and whose bullet caused a penetrating wound above the heart.”
The hunter who fired the shot was taken into custody where it was determined he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
A post-mortem will be held on Wednesday.
“The investigation carried out under the authority of the Saint-Brieuc prosecution should make it possible to quickly determine the causes of this tragic accident”, the prosecutor added.
Laurent Le Faucheur, mayor of Goudelin, told La Telegramme: "It’s a shock for us, it’s a couple we knew well". They are believed to live in Goudelin.
It came amid calls for greater regulations to be placed on wild boar hunts after a teenager killed a 25-year-old female hiker with a stray bullet as she walked along a marked trail near Aurillac.
In 2020 British ex-pat Morgan Keane was shot dead by a hunter who “mistook him for a wild boar” as he chopped wood yards from his home in the French countryside.
Morgan Keane is thought to have died instantly when a bullet hit him in the isolated hamlet of La Garrigue, north of Toulouse.
Mr Keane is believed to have been looking after his younger brother in their home after their father died earlier this year following their mother’s death.
The ex-pat community in nearby Cajarc organised an anti-hunting protest march in his memory.
