11-year-old British girl shot dead in France in dispute over garden

An 11-year-old British girl was shot dead in Saint-Herbot in Brittany, western France, on Saturday, during a dispute between two neighbors over their gardens, according to the local mayor's office.

The girl's parents were seriously wounded in the gun attack. Her 8-year-old-sister escaped and was found "unharmed but in a state of shock," Quimper prosecutor Carine Halley said in a statement on Sunday.

The family were in their garden when their 71-year-old Dutch neighbor appeared with a firearm and started firing several times in their direction before shutting himself in his house with his wife, authorities say.

Police intervened at 10 p.m. local time. An hour later the Dutch man and his wife surrendered and were taken into custody - he has since been placed under investigation for murder, French prosecutors said.

French prosecutors say the 11-year-old was pronounced dead at the hospital, and her father sustained a life-threatening head injury, and is in a critical yet stable condition. The mother, 49, was also wounded in the shooting and remains under care in hospital with the family's other daughter, 8, who was hospitalized with shock.

The shooting was caused by a disagreement over gardening noise and the cutting down of trees bordering the properties, Régine Guillot, an administrative worker at the town hall of Plonevez-du-Faou, told CNN Monday.

The shooter had been angry at his neighbor, who cut down trees that provided shade to his property, Guillot said, adding that the dispute had been running for at least two years.