Apology for man hurt in shooting

Mark Hoskins is recovering after being hit in the knee

An Oxfordshire man has received an apology from the French army after he was shot at during a military display.

Mark Hoskins, who emigrated to France from Wallingford, was hit at the event near Carcassonne at the weekend.

Part of the display involved paratroops rescuing a hostage - in all 17 people were injured when one of the soldiers fired live rounds instead of blanks.

Mr Hoskins was treated for a knee wound, and has been offered psychological counselling.

"The army have been round and offered an official apology and talk through what happened," said Mr Hoskins.

The French army chief of staff, Gen Bruno Cuche, resigned two days after the incident.

Four people, including a child, were seriously injured in the incident at the barracks near Carcassonne, south-western France.

On Monday, President Sarkozy, who visited the wounded in hospital, said he would seek explanations from the whole chain of command over the incident.

President Sarkozy accepted Gen Cuche's resignation

Mr Hoskins said he feared most for his son.

"One of the worst things is what might have been - [my son] Edward was up on my shoulders and so exposed to what was going on.

"Any parent can imagine what that feels like, it's frightening.

"Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

"I was aware of the noise of the gun and it was an horrific scene.

"People were at my feet and you could see they'd been shot."

The sergeant who fired the shots is being held in custody.

It is was thought he had held on to some live ammunition from a previous exercise in breach of regulations and mistakenly loaded them.

Mr Hoskins' wife and two children all emigrated to France five years ago.

He said they had been offered counselling.

He added: "Even though you may feel fine, the stress of what happened may lie dormant, they said.

"We feel pretty much fine though."