French government to launch legal action against bear killers

Investigation opened into destruction of a protected species' after male shot in Pyrenees

French police are hunting the killer of a brown bear in the Pyrenees after the government said it would bring legal action against the culprit.

Elisabeth Borne, the ecology minister, described the shooting of the animal, a protected species, as illegal and deeply regrettable". The bear was a four or five-year-old male weighing 150kg to 200kg, according to local officials in the Ariege region.