By Tom Hussey
AN 11-year-old British schoolgirl has been shot dead during a family BBQ in France following an alleged row between neighbours.
Her dad was left critically injured when a gunman opened fire on Saturday evening in the north-western region of Brittany.
A 71-year-old neighbour was arrested at the scene at Saint-Herbot[/caption]
The girl’s mother was also injured during the attack which is reported to have unfolded as the girl’s playing on swings.
Solenne Thornon, 11, died after coming under fire from a neighbour brandishing a revolver in the hamlet of Saint-Herbot.
Her parents Adrien and Rachel Thornon were also injured in the attack, while her eight-year-old sister Celeste managed to escape.
The suspect, reported to be a 71-year-old Dutch national, and his wife, were arrested at the scene in Saint-Herbot, near Quimper.
He faces a murder charge, and three attempted ones, said a local police source.
It is alleged there had been a conflict between the neighbours for a number of years over a plot of land adjoining the two properties.
An investigative source said: “There was a dispute between neighbours, and a gun was produced.
“It appears that the couple next door wanted to kill all members of the family.
“They had been arguing for many years over a plot of land adjoining the two properties.
“Tensions clearly reached boiling point. The older girl was shot dead and her parents seriously wounded.
“The father, suffered a head injury and is critical in hospital, while the mother is also very badly hurt.
“The youngest child is the only one who is unscathed, having managed to flee to another neighbour’s house.”
The Thornons had lived in the property – a converted sawmill close to the local Catholic Church – for “a number of years”, according to a near neighbour.
It was Solenne’s sister, Celeste, who raised the alarm following the shooting, leading to specialist firearms officers from the elite GIGN (Gendarme National Intervention Group) arriving.
The source said: “The shooter locked himself in his home after the shooting so there was a brief siege.
“After some negotiation, the suspect gave himself up without a struggle, and he was arrested, alongside his wife. He had retired to Saint-Herbot around six years ago.”
Local prosecutor Carine Halley said that initial evidence suggested the suspect “suddenly emerged armed with a gun and fired several times towards the victims.”
Halley added that when police arrived the 11-year-old girl was dead and her father was seriously injured.
He was taken to the La Cavale Blanche hospital in Brest in critical condition.
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.”
She added the suspect appeared to be “dazed” when he was arrested.
“I am not even sure he realised the gravity of what he had done,” she said.
Local resident Yannick, told Le Télégramme 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’.”
A neighbour said the neighbour dispute started when the family “cut down all the trees that bothered them”, according to the Times.
And another neighbour named Françoise said the 71-year-old was a recluse who complained about the family making too much noise.
He said: “But it was in the daytime and they didn’t make more noise than anyone else. No one else was bothered by it.”
The Foreign Office said it was providing assistance to a British family following a shooting in France.
Quimper prosecutor Halley said: “An investigation has been opened into the murder of a minor and three attempted murders.”
Category: News, World News
