Spanish hunter who broke legs in fall into abandoned well shot himself after days of waiting in vain for rescue

Spaniards were today horrified by the death of a hunter from Mallorca who fell 18 metres down an abandoned country well and, after several days enduring the pain of his broken limbs and with no hope of rescue, turned his shotgun on himself.

The corpse of the municipal police officer and keen hunter, who was named as Antonio M, was eventually found after a colleague discovered his car nearby, according to Spanish newspapers.

A search of the area revealed an open, dry well with no wall around it that was hidden by thick vegetation.

Rescuers who went down the well near the town of Calvià said they found the body of the 49-year-old man in a sitting position with a shotgun beside it.

Forensic scientists confirmed that the man had broken his legs in the fall and had sat at the bottom of the well for about three days.

They gave the cause of death as gunshot wounds and police said it was clear that he had killed himself, presumably after giving up hope of being found.

Police said no one would have heard his cries for help, even though the well was close to the Sol de Mallorca complex of holiday homes near the island's El Mago beach. It would have been impossible for him to clamber up the sheer-walled well with his broken limbs.

The open well was on former farmland that had been set aside for hunting. Workers on the estate said it had been drilled some 60 years ago when the then owners sought water to irrigate the land.

No water had been found and the land was left to go wild. Apparently no attempt was made to cover the well or to build a wall around it.

Authorities were expected to order the new owners of the land to cover it up.

The victim had let his home on the holiday island to go hunting on 24 November but, as he was on leave from his job, it had taken several days for people to notice that he was missing.