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An 11-year-old girl from a British family has been shot dead in France.
She was reportedly killed while playing in the garden of her home in Saint-Herbot, a village near the city of Quimper in Brittany, at about 10pm local time on Saturday.
According to local television network France 3, her father is in a critical condition, while her mother has non-life-threatening injuries.
The girl’s sister – who is eight years old – managed to escape unhurt and raised the alarm, but is in a state of shock.
It is believed the family had lived at the property for four or five years – and both girls were born in France.
The suspect, a 71-year-old Dutch national, has been arrested on suspicion of killing the girl, according to local prosecutors. His wife is also reportedly being held.
The Times reported the family was having a barbecue at the time of the attack.
Yannick, a local resident, told the daily regional paper Le Telegramme de Brest: “We heard the bangs and we thought it was children playing with bangers. Then the kid ran into a neighbour’s house saying: ‘My sister is dead, my sister is dead’.”
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According to local prosecutors, initial evidence suggests the pensioner “suddenly emerged armed with a gun and fired several times towards the victims”.
He is reported to have then shut himself in his house with his wife.
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, Carine Halley, the state prosecutor in Quimper, reportedly said.
It has been suggested that the neighbours may have had an ongoing dispute.
One neighbour said the dispute with the Dutch pensioner began when they “cut down all the trees that bothered them”.
A neighbour of the Thornons told La Telegramme he had seen the whole family under the oak tree at the bottom of their garden earlier in the evening when they were attacked.
“The two little girls were playing near the games and on the swing, the parents were sitting on their usual bench and having a barbecue,” he said.
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Plonévez-du-Faou’s mayor, Marguerite Bleuzen, said: “We knew the family well. There is a village fête every year and they always came.
“They are not a family who caused problems. Perhaps there was a dispute with the neighbour, I don’t know about that. But it is incomprehensible to have shot a child. No one can understand how that could have happened.”
A spokesperson for the 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.”
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