A TEENAGER killed in a hunting accident south of Tallangatta yesterday afternoon is believed to have been mistaken for a deer.
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The 19-year-old from Thurgoona was accidentally shot dead while hunting in dense scrubland at Noorongong.
Police said this morning that the teenager was joined by his brother and a friend on the hunting foray.
They became separated from each other at about 5pm.
Police said it was believed one of the men mistook the teenager for a deer and fired a fatal shot at him.
The man was pronounced dead on the arrival of paramedics.
Police and ambulance officers were called to the remote scene in Tallangatta South after a man walked into a farm house on the Omeo Highway just after 5.30pm asking for help.
An Ambulance Victoria spokesman said the man asked the farm house occupants to call police and an ambulance, saying there had been a fatal shooting.
It took Tallangatta police and ambulance officers more than an hour and 20 minutes to trek to the rear of the remote property, two kilometres south of Powerline Road and east of the Timber Reserve Eskdale Spur.
The man was dead when they arrived, Ambulance Victoria said.
Rough terrain prevented police from carrying the body out.
Late last night the air wing was attempting an extraction in thick fog and with visibility down to 10 metres, police were using flares to guide the helicopter.
Others at the scene were last night being treated for shock.
Wodonga detectives also attended and are investigating the incident.
A Victoria police spokeswoman said early information indicated the shooting was accidental.
This is the second accidental shooting on the Border this year.
In April an Albury boy, 15, was accidentally shot in the right elbow.
He and a friend were playing with a .22 calibre rifle owned by the boy’s late grandfather.
In 2006, a young boy, 10, was hit in the hand and ankle.
A rifle was accidentally discharged from the rear of a vehicle, carrying five people during a shooting trip on a private property in Wangaratta.