Italy’s hunters have been accused of behaving like Wild West cowboys after a son mistook his father for a wild boar and shot him dead.

There are hunting accidents every year in Italy, with dozens of people injured, but it is rare for one family member to kill another.

The men were on a wild boar hunt near the village of Sicignano degli Aburni, in the southern region of Campania, when the accident happened at the weekend.

The 34-year-son heard his hunting dogs barking, saw some rustling in the bushes, and fired a shot.

But instead of taking down a boar, he had hit his 55-year-old father in the stomach. The man, named as Martino Gaudioso, died shortly afterwards.