Pensioner shot his son three times after mistaking him for blackbird in cherry tree

A man in north-western France shot his son three times after mistaking him for a blackbird raiding the family cherry tree.

The man, in his 70s, noticed some rustling in his cherry tree tree on Saturday night and, assuming it was hungry blackbirds pillaging his fruit, he pulled out his shotgun and opened fire.



But the movement in the tree was not in fact scavenging birds, but the elderly man’s 46-year-old son who'd climbed the tree to pick some fruit.

The son was rushed to a hospital and his father’s gun was seized by police. Despite being hit in the cheek, arm and hand, the son suffered only minor injuries that were not deemed life threatening.