AKITA - A woman in her 60s suffered an ear injury requiring about 10 stitches after a deformed bullet smashed through the rear window of her light truck while she was driving in Happo, Akita Prefecture, shortly after a monkey crossed the road.
The Aomori Prefecture resident said she was driving through the town last week when a monkey emerged from the mountainside and ran across the road in front of her vehicle.
"As I passed the area where the monkey had been, there was suddenly a loud bang," the woman said.
The rear window shattered, scattering glass throughout the vehicle, while two cracks appeared in the front windshield. A hole was also found in the driver's seat headrest, suggesting that an object had passed through it.
The bullet grazed the woman's left ear, leaving an injury that required about 10 stitches. She said she continues to experience ringing and other discomfort in the ear.
"I don't know whether something flew in from behind or fell from above, but there was a loud bang from the glass near my ear," she said. "I really panicked. I never imagined that live ammunition would be used in a place like that."
A deformed bullet was later recovered from inside the vehicle.
At the time of the incident, members of a local hunting association contracted by the town were reportedly carrying out an operation to drive monkeys away from woodland near a national highway.
The town has suspended the monkey-control operation for the time being, while police are carefully investigating whether it was connected to the woman's injury.
Source: FNN
