Hunter’s shot smashes car window passing close to driver in Normandy

An inquiry has been opened after a shot entered a moving car and almost hit the driver, who was travelling on a road a few hundred metres away from a wood where a hunt was taking place near Rouen.

The incident happened in Quevillon in Normandy on Saturday January 28.

The driver made a formal complaint to the gendarmerie. She had been driving on route de Belaitre towards 12:30 when the shot smashed one of her car windows and came to a stop close to her.

She was left extremely shocked. Gendarmerie later found the shot in her car.

Officers started investigations at midday on Sunday to identify exactly where it hit and where it came from.

At the time of the impact, a hunt was taking place in Quevillon in a wooded area located a few hundred metres from the road.

José Doméné-Guérin, president of the hunting federation of Seine-Maritime, was informed of the incident. However, he said he did not want to comment on the case due to the inquiry underway.

He did, however, “remind everyone of the safety rules” and said, “we do a lot to ensure safety”.

Read also: Hunting France: no Sunday ban, an app for walkers.. new plans revealed

Hunting headlines

The incident comes a month after a similar case hit the headlines. In December 2022, a hunter’s shot hit a car full of people on a main road in Oise. It was the second hunting accident that weekend in Oise, after a hunter was seriously injured by a bullet to the stomach during a hunt.

Just a month before that, a hunter died after being shot during a hunt.

Calls for hunt-free days and stricter rules proliferated last year after a 25-year-old hiker was shot dead accidentally by a hunting bullet.

And in 2021, a 67-year-old driver was killed by a bullet that ricocheted off a stone before flying into his car. The 70-year-old shooter was later charged with manslaughter.

Recent hunting incidents include a British woman who was accidentally shot dead by her partner, and a young family who reported a hunting bullet entering their kitchen while they were inside with their baby.

And friends of 25-year-old Franco-British man Morgan Keane, who was shot dead while in his own garden in 2020, have called for stricter controls on hunting and tougher punishments for hunt organisers.

Read also: Hunter who shot man dead in his garden in France escapes jail time

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