PARIS — An 11-year-old girl from a British family has been shot dead while playing in her garden in France, following a reported dispute between neighbors.
The family were enjoying a barbeque on Saturday evening when the shooting happened in the village of Saint-Herbot, north of Quimper in Brittany.
The girl’s parents were also hurt, with the father suffering serious injuries, local media reported.
The UK said it was providing assistance to a British family.
The girl and her eight-year-old sister were playing on a swing as their parents tended the barbecue when a neighbor began firing at them with a shotgun through a hedge.
The younger girl ran to another neighbor’s house to raise the alarm and is now said to be in shock.
The suspect, described as a 71-year-old Dutch national, reportedly shut himself in his house following the incident but eventually surrendered to police and was arrested along with his wife.
Locals said the man was something of a recluse who was in dispute with the British family over a plot of land adjoining the two properties.
Local media reported that the family had lived in the village for several years.
Prosecutor Carine Halley said the circumstances surrounding the incident were not yet known.
Marguerite Bleuzen, the mayor of Plonévez-du-Faou commune, said: “We knew the family well. There is a village fête every year and they always came.
“It is incomprehensible to have shot a child. No one can understand how that could have happened.”
A spokeswoman for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “We are providing consular assistance to a British family following a shooting in France and are in contact with the local authorities.” BBC