Elderly man accidentally shot by neighbour attempting to shoot noisy cockerel

A loudly crowing cockerel in a neighbour's garden annoyed a 54-year-old man from Carinthian in Austria so much that he grabbed his air rifle to shoot the bird on Sunday evening, but accidentally shot the rooster's 81-year-old owner instead.

The pensioner, who was in his garden at the time, was struck in the hand and right kneecap by the pellets. When the 54-year-old realised what he had done he tried to flee from the scene in his car but was tracked down by two police helicopters and arrested by armed police a short while later.



He had taken his air rifle to a parking lot outside his house and shot in the direction of his neighbour’s barn, where the chickens were kept. His neighbour was in the garden emptying a compost bucket. "The 81-year-old felt a burning sensation and then realised that he was bleeding," district police commander Klaus Innerwinkler said.

A witness who had seen the incident called an ambulance and the police. The 54-year-old shooter has been given a temporary weapons ban and police have confiscated all of his guns. The injured chicken owner was flown by helicopter to hospital in Klagenfurt. The cockerel was unharmed.