Hunter, 34, shoots dead his own dad, 55, after mistaking him for a wild boar in Italy
A HUNTER has shot dead his own father after he mistook him for a wild boar rustling in foliage.
The 34-year-old man reportedly opened fire on his dad during a boar hunt in southern Italy on Sunday.
The son "caught a glimpse of a silhouette moving among the bushes" and believing it to be a wild boar, fired a shot from his shotgun.
Martino Gaudioso died instantly after he was shot in the lower abdomen near the town of Postiglione in Salerno province.
After realising his mistake, the son alerted authorities and attempted to keep his dad alive.
However, medics were unable to save him.
Italian police have charged the unidentified man with culpable homicide and the rifles were seized.
The pair were hunting in a national park area where hunting is prohibited, local media reported.
At the time of the shooting, the president of the Italian League for the Defence of Animals and the Environment said Italy had become the "Wild West".
Michela Vittoria Brambilla said: "It is a real national emergency".
Last year, an 18-year-old was shot and killed close to the French border in a hunting accident.
Two other men - a 56-year-old and a 20-year-old - also died in similar circumstances in the same month.
And in a similar case, a British mountain biker was shot dead by a young hunter as he rode down a heavily wooded path in the French Alps.
Marc Sutton was killed in "thick woods" near a ski resort in October last year after it was claimed the expat may have been mistaken for a fast-moving animal.
The 34 year old, originally from Caerphilly, in South Wales, ran a restaurant called Wild Beets with his girlfriend in the small ski resort of Les Gets, close to Morzine.
He died ‘from a single bullet’ wound, said a source.
His sister Katie Toghill, 32, later claimed he repeatedly raped and beat her when they were kids.
And the moment a hunter gun shot an OAP jogger who he claimed he thought was a deer was captured on film.
The 48-year-old hunter faced an attempted murder charge after police said the shooting in Klippan, southern Sweden was not an accident.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.