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British mountain biker accidentally shot dead by hunter in French Alps

34-year-old victim reportedly ran a restaurant near Morzine

A British mountain biker has been accidentally shot dead by a hunter in the French Alps, reports the Dauphiné Libéré.

The fatal shooting happened at around 6pm yesterday evening in the commune of Montrion in Haute Savoie, close to the Swiss border.

The victim, aged 34, ran a restaurant in the commune of Gets, near Morzine. A post mortem will be performed in the coming week.

He had been descending a path on the edge of a wood when he was shot, but according to state prosecutor Philippe Toccanier, would have been “perfectly visible.”

The fatal shot was fired by a 22-year-old male who had been taking part in a game shoot organised by a local hunting club.

The hunter was hospitalised in a state of shock, while an investigation has been opened into suspected aggravated involuntary manslaughter.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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vonhelmet | 5 years ago
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With credit to Tom Lehrer:

Almost every day during the hunting season you see at least one item in the newspapers about somebody who has shot somebody else, under the impression that he was a deer with a red hat perhaps, maybe a large flesh-colored squirrel.

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dreadcast | 5 years ago
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Road rage is widely tolerated as well. But it seems there are less fatalities in France than in UK if I believe those reported here (« only » 2 cyclists died last year in Paris)

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iandusud | 5 years ago
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In the 90s I lived in the Corbière region of France in a mountain biking paradise. In the end however I just stopped riding through the hunting season as I lost count of the number of times I would come round a bend to have someone swing roung pointing a loaded shotgun in my direction. I figured I was pushing my luck every time I went out. The worst time would be after lunch when they'd had a few glasses of wine. They never seemed to abide by the protocol of keeping the breech open until ready to fire. 

BTW the hunting lobby in France is very strong so stories like this never seem to make it into mainstream media. However when I was there there was on average one death every weekend of the hunting season - the victims were usually other hunters. 

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Yorkshire wallet replied to iandusud | 5 years ago
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iandusud wrote:

However when I was there there was on average one death every weekend of the hunting season - the victims were usually other hunters. 

C'est la vie! 

Amazing what people will tolerate just because that's the way of things. 

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