A farmer in southern Nepal mistook his son for a monkey trying to steal his crops and shot the 12-year-old dead, police said on Sunday.

Chitra Bahadur Pulami had been climbing a tree to chase away macaques that had become a nuisance to the family but his father Gupta Bahadur, 55, spotted the boy and opened fire, wrongly believing him to be one of the animals.

“The son was hiding in a tree at their farm to chase away monkeys that used to come searching for food in the maize field,” said Arun Poudel, deputy superintendent of police in the remote Arghakhanchi district

“The son died on the spot after Gupta Bahadur mistakenly thought there was a monkey in the tree and opened fire. Our preliminary investigation shows that the father was unaware that his son had gone to the maize field to chase the monkeys.