The Haugesund couple had just taken off a motorway in eastern France when they heard a loud bang. When they stopped to inspect the caravan, they discovered what they were sure was a bullet hole in the side of the car.
– We were shot, we are convinced. It was a very frightening experience, Åse Marie Hansen Kalleland (72) tells VG.
She and her husband Jan Berger Hansen, 62, were driving south in France on their way to a long-term vacation in Spain when they suddenly heard a loud bang at 2pm on Saturday.
They think they may have been the victim of an attempted highway robbery.
I dare not think what would have happened if we had pierced the road and got out. It could have gone wrong.
The accident occurred near the town of Luxeuil les-Bains, a three-hour drive from Lyon.
– We heard a loud bang. We did not understand what was happening, but we did not dare to stop. We’ve heard stories of road hackers who can use radical means to rob motorists, she says.
After driving for about 20 minutes, the couple stopped at a gas station. There they discovered a hole in the door on the right side of the caravan.
– The bullet penetrated a meter and a half from behind the passenger seat in which I was sitting. Hit the height of the tires, says Åse Marie.
The couple’s mobile home has waterborne underfloor heating and a coolant tank that is heated and circulated in a piping system. This tank was empty when they stopped at the gas station, says Hansen Calleland.
Water floats on the ground, she says.
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VG provided images of the holes for retired forensic scientist Lev Oren, who for 38 years worked as a firearms and crime scene investigator in Krepos.
He says that the hole in the door is roughly round and that the size of the fiber reinforcement can fit a fine-caliber projectile, say .22 (5.6mm), or 7.62mm, which hits a right.
The ear says that the hole in the reinforced fibers in the internal damage is somewhat elongated so that it can fit a projectile that has hit more or less through.
– This can fit into a slanted projectile or projectile with no stability, which is often because the projectile hit something else first. Thus the cause of the projectile holes may be. In order to make this clear, the damage must be investigated criminally.
Marie Hansen Calleland says they tried to call the police, but didn’t call anyone who spoke English.
– We were transferred to another person, but we only heard a commotion, and no one answered. At the gas station, they couldn’t speak English, she says.
The couple wondered if the shell had come from a hunter’s weapon that had miscalculated fatally, but this thought was unlikely,
– I can’t understand that someone is fishing near the road. We’ve heard that the mobile home of a Dutch couple was bombed this week, and there have also been gassings and robberies of a motorhome tourist in the country.
Two years ago, VG wrote about a Norwegian family that survived drug and theft As they sleep in their express house outside Antibes, France.
In recent years, British media have reported on several couples who have been gassed and robbed in their convoys on holiday in France.
Hansen Calleland says they didn’t find any projectiles in the mobile home. She believes the bullet may have entered the ground, which was built up from a set of stairs.
The Haugesund couple have owned a mobile home for the past 14 years. After their retirement, they made several long trips in Europe.
– This is the third time we’ve driven to Spain with a motorhome. It’s a very nice way to spend the holiday, but what happened on Saturday affected us.
When VG spoke to Hansen Kalleland on Sunday morning, they were on their way to Spain. They will be there until the end of November.
– On Monday we must find a shop to repair the damage to the heating system. She says, we will need heating in the car.
The couple states that they contacted the insurance company in Norway after the accident.
The president of the Norwegian Association of Mobile Homes Jan Ottingen told VG that he had never heard of two Norwegian tourists who were shot dead on a trip abroad.
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