A party official said to have shot a villager during a wild boar hunt in East China’s Fujian Province has been detained.

Li Qichang, 45, a native of Chengxiang Town, had gone onto the mountains to pick mushrooms on November 23 but failed to return, Southern Metropolis Daily reported. His body was found three days later, with gunshot wounds to his left knee. A relative told the paper than Li had probably died from loss of blood.

On November 27, a man surnamed Wu handed himself in to police, saying he and Xiu Qikai, deputy Party chief of Chengxiang, had gone hunting on November 23 and that Xiu had mistaken Li for a wild boar when he shot at him.

Both men are in police custody and an investigation is underway, the newspaper said.

Shotgun owners are required to have a certificate and are allowed to hunt animals only where authorities have granted authorization.

An anonymous police official said there was evidence to show that Xiu could have saved Li when he realized he had shot a human being, but instead he chose to leave the scene, the paper reported.

Zhong Guilin, Party chief of Chengxiang, told the paper Xiu “can’t use gun and he doesn’t have a shotgun. He was called by his friend to go hunting.”

He added that Wu is a farmer, not an official.

In a similar case, Xiao Weidong, an official in Hengyang in central China’s Hunan Province, shot dead a 57-year-old woman during a hunting trip on November 9.

An investigation into the activities of the 11-strong hunting party is continuing, Xinhua news agency reported.