An 11-year-old British girl was shot dead in Saint-Herbot in Brittany, western France, on Saturday, during a dispute between two neighbours over their gardens, according to the local mayor’s office.
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 Dutchman and his wife surrendered and were taken into custody.
The shooting was caused by a disagreement over gardening noise and the cutting down of trees bordering the properties, Régine Guillot, an administrative worker at the town hall of Plonevez-du-Faou, told CNN Monday.
The shooter had been angry at his neighbour, who cut down trees that provided shade to his property, Guillot said, adding that the dispute had been running for at least two years.
“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.
Halley said Sunday “The motives for the tragedy are not yet known.” But, according to the initial investigation, “it appears there had been a dispute between the two neighbours for several years over a piece of land adjoining the two properties.”
The Quimper prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation on charges of voluntary manslaughter of a minor and attempted murder.
“I intervened with my deputies when we were elected. There was a problem with the land, noise complaints,” Bleuzen said.
“I’m dumbfounded,” the mayor added.
