Eleven-year-old schoolgirl from British family shot dead on garden swing in France is named

ITV News Correspondent Rachel Younger reports after an 11-year-old girl from a British family was reportedly shot dead on the garden swing in France

A 71-year-old has been charged after a 11-year-old girl from a British family was shot dead while on a garden swing in France.

Solaine Thornton was killed while she was playing on Saturday evening in a hamlet near the city of Quimper in western Brittany.

Her parents, Adrien and Rachel Thornton, were injured during the incident, which neighbours said happened while the family were enjoying a barbecue.

The child’s father was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

Initial evidence suggests “the suspect suddenly emerged armed with a gun and fired several times towards the victims”, the local prosecutors told reporters.

Solaine's eight-year-old sister, Celeste, who fled the scene and raised the alarm, was left in “shock".

Speaking at a press conference in Brest on Monday, public prosecutor Camille Miansoni told the media it did not seem Solaine was the target of a fatal gunshot.

The Foreign Office said it was providing assistance to a British family.

A spokesperson said: “We are providing consular assistance to a British family following a shooting in France and are in contact with the local authorities.”

The motive behind the shooting is not yet known, but the neighbour is reported to have been in a long-running row with the family over a plot of land beside their properties.

Mr Miansoni told reporters the father had been gardening "working on the hedge between the two properties".

This "appeared to exasperated the suspect, who picked up his rifle and fired three or four shots," Mr Miansoni said.

The man had been in a “conflict” with the family over a plot of land beside their properties for “several years”, state prosecutor Carine Halley said.

A police colonel also confirmed they were aware of a conciliation process in 2019 between the British family and their neighbours.

She said: “It is true that we were warned in 2019 of the conciliation process with regard to the dispute between these two neighbours but subsequently we haven’t had any kind of follow-up, and neither has there been any kind of criminal offence committed since.”

The suspect is reported to have then shut himself in his house with his wife after the incident.

The Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie tactical unit was called to the scene and a negotiator persuaded the neighbour and his wife to give themselves up before they were arrested, the prosecutor reportedly said.

The Times said the family-of-four are believed to have lived in their current home for about four or five years and that the two girls were born in France.

Marguerite Bleuzen, the mayor of the nearby village of Plonevez-du-Faou, is reported to have said the family were well-known and came to the village fete.

The incident comes less than a week after a British girl was one of four children stabbed in a knife attack in the French Alps while on holiday.

The British girl, named locally as Ettie, three, had been visiting the area with her parents.

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