Woman accidentally shot dead on boar hunt ‘by man holding rifle backwards’

A British woman has died after being shot while on a wild boar hunt in northern France.

The hunting party were crossing a corn field in Goudelin, Brittany, when a 69-year-old man whose rifle was mounted on his shoulder with the “barrel pointing towards the back” fired a shot and it hit the 67-year-old woman “above the heart”.

She was rushed to hospital in Saint-Brieuc but could not be saved and died just after midday on Sunday, October 16, prosecutor Nicolas Heitz said.

The deceased has been identified as Jacqueline Taylor.

French police launched a manslaughter investigation and took the man, identified as Pierre Philippot, into custody for questioning.

“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,” prosecutors said on Monday, October 17.

“The shot reached his companion … and whose bullet caused a penetrating wound above the heart.”

Mr Heitz said the exact circumstances of the shooting are still unclear, but initial tests found the shooter was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.