A 78-year-old man died after he was shot by a hunter who thought he was shooting at a wild monkey on a mountain slope in Kamogawa, Chiba Prefecture, police said Friday.

Police said Masaru Takahashi, 67, who has a license to use firearms for culling wild animals, has been charged with negligence resulting in death after he shot Hisashi Mori with a shotgun. Sankei Shimbun reported that the incident occurred at around 5 p.m. Thursday. Hunters have been culling wild monkeys in the mountain forest recently.

According to police, Takahashi was pulling out weeds behind his house when he saw several monkeys come down from the forested hill. He got his shotgun, chased them back into the bushes and fired at one of them. He then went to see if he had hit the animal and found Mori who lived nearby, lying on the ground, bleeding from a head wound.

Mori was taken to hospital where he died about six hours later.

© Japan Today