A skier has been killed in Sweden by a female hunter after a single bullet passed through an elk. In what is thought to be a freak accident, a 71-year-old man was shot dead in Annerstad, southern Sweden, on Saturday, December 4.
Police in the Kronoberg county have been reluctant to release details about the incident while investigations continue, but said that the hunter and her companion were very shaken up by the accident.
Speaking to news agency TT, hunting consultant at the Swedish Hunters Association, Henrik Barnekow, said shots often passed through game but that he has never heard of a bullet continuing on to kill someone. “However, there have been incidents of a bullet ricocheting out of the game, continuing and killing the hunter’s dog situated near the prey,” he added.
As a bullet from a hunting rifle can travel for up to five kilometres, Barnekow said that it is important for the hunter to ensure there is a safety area, such as a hill or firm ground, behind the target animal. “Forests do not count as safety areas,” he added.
Communications director for the Hunters Association, Chritina Nilson-Dag, said incidents where someone not involved in the hunt is injured only happen once every decade or so. She cited an occasion in 2002 when a 41-year-old Lithuanian berry picker was killed by an 80-year-old elk hunter in Sundsvall who mistook him for a moose. “It is the only accident of this nature that I can recall,” said Nilson-Dag.
I had no idea Sarah Palin was weekending in Sweden right now…