An 11-year-old girl from a British family has been shot dead in France and her father is fighting for his life following an attack on Saturday night.
The girl was reportedly playing on the swings while the family was having a barbecue in their garden in the village of Saint-Herbot in Brittany, western France, when a neighbour allegedly fired several shots at them at around 10pm local time.
The suspect – a 71-year-old Dutch national named as Dirk Raats – was arrested along with his wife, prosecutors said.
The child’s father, who was reportedly shot in the head, is in a critical condition at a hospital, while her mother received non-life-threatening injuries.
The girl’s eight-year-old sister managed to escape unhurt but was left in a state of “shock” after witnessing the shooting. According to a local resident, she raised the alarm, shouting: "My sister is dead, my sister is dead".
The killing of the British girl comes just days after another three-year-old British girl was among four children and two adults who were stabbed in a park by a man in Annecy in eastern France.
