Mystery as French winner of The Voice Kendji Girac is shot and seriously injured during visit to traveller site before telling cops he 'mishandled firearm' - as forensics 'look for signs of shotgun residue on his partner'

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A winner of the French series of The Voice has been seriously injured after being shot in the chest during a visit to a traveller site near Bordeaux.

Kendji Girac, 27, was seriously injured last night and rushed to a nearby hospital where he is now in intensive care in a non-life threatening condition, a source said.

He reportedly told police that he mishandled a firearm he had purchased at a flea market on Saturday, which led to him being shot, according to Le Parisien.

Police were called at about 5.30am local time to the site where Mr Girac was found conscious, lying outside his holiday caravan in the seaside town of Biscarrosse, claiming he 'shot himself'.

However, cops are refusing to rule out any explanation, and forensics experts are 'examining his partner for traces of shotgun residue,' said an investigating source.

The source added that 'a domestic incident' was to blame for the injuries, and that Mr Girac was already talking about it.

The singer is reported to have been with the unidentified partner and his three-year-old daughter in the caravan when a shot was heard. Nobody else beyond Mr Girac was injured in the blast, said the source.

Kendji Girac was a juror on The Voice Kids France last year after winning The Voice in 2014

Kendji Girac and Eva Longoria attend the 11th Eva Longoria X Global Gift during the Paris Fashion Week at Four Seasons Hotel George V on September 30, 2023 in Paris, France

Kendji Girac won the third series of the popular TV singing show The Voice in France in 2014 (pictured singing in the quarterfinal)

'He has said a few words from his hospital bed,' said the source. 'He is saying that he shot himself by mistake.'

A source told the BFM news outlet that Mr Girac had bought a shotgun at a flea market on Saturday. He was not sure how to use it, and the accident was the result, it was claimed.

A BFM report adds: 'Kendji Girac was hit by a bullet in the chest, with an exit point in the back.'

The gun was kept in the caravan, and has since been confiscated by police forensics experts, who are carrying out ballistics tests.

Mr Girac was later placed under armed guard at a secure medical unit in Pessac, some four miles from Bordeaux.

It came as Olivier Janson, the state prosecutor in Mont-de-Marsan, confirmed that a 'criminal enquiry' had been launched 'and no theory for what happened is being ruled out.'

Questions were being asked about how Mr Girac might have been able to turn a full size shot gun on himself, and manage to pull the trigger.

'There are already plenty of mysterious associated with this enquiry,' said the investigating source. 

'A very large police team is in the camp, but they are not currently getting much help from those living there. Many refuse to speak to the police.'

Sniffer dogs and forensic teams could be seen entering caravans at the site, which is on the D652 road at Biscarrosse, heading towards Parentis-en-Born.

Mr Girac was said to have been at Biscarrosse 'for several days' with his partner and there had been no reports of trouble before the shooting, said the source.

French media meanwhile claimed that the woman who gave birth to Mr Girac's daughter was called Soraya - but it is not known whether she was the partner who was in the caravan with Mr Girac at the time of the shooting.

She has frequently been pictured with him since he won The Voice, but he 'strictly guards her privacy,' said the investigating source.

Kendji Girac, 27, is in an intensive care unit at the University Hospital in Bordeaux

Mika (left) and Kendji Girac (right) at the 25th NRJ Music Awards ceremony in Cannes, in the south of France, on November 10, 2023

It was not clear whether 'the partner' referred to by police and other investigators at the camp was Soraya, or another person.

'He was at a travellers' camp where he was wounded by a firearm,' an investigating source previously said. 

'Gendarmes were alerted at around 5.30am, and when they arrived they were confronted by around 20 people who refused to communicate any information.

'The emergency services meanwhile evacuated a seriously wounded man who had been shot in the chest, and he was rushed to hospital.' 

Confirming the victim as Kendji Girac, the source first described his medical condition as 'life threatening', but it was later reported that his life is no longer in danger.

It was not immediately clear what led to his being shot. 

Mr Girac, a father-of-one, shot to fame in France in 2014 after winning the third series of the popular TV singing show, The Voice. 

He has since released five albums and performed duets with other French singing stars, such as Vianney and Florent Pagny.

Kendji Girac, 27, is in an intensive care unit at the University Hospital in Bordeaux after being hit by gunfire in the early hours of this morning following a visit to a camp in nearby Biscarrosse (file image of the dunes in Biscarrosse)

French singer Kendji Girac poses during a photo session in Paris on March 22, 2021. French singer Kendji Girac, seriously injured by a gunshot, is between life and death, a source close to the case said on April 22, 2024

Kendji Girac was born Kendji Maillé in Périgueux, in the Dordogne, and is of Catalan gypsy origin. 

He has often spoken of 'growing up in a caravan' and becoming a pruner after stopping formal education at the age of 16.

In August 2013, his uncle posted a video online of Mr Girac covering a song called Bella, in gypsy style. 

It became a huge YouTube hit, and got him on to The Voice, which he won with more than 51 per cent of the national vote.

He has since sold millions of albums, with hits including 'Color Gitano' and 'Andalouse' (Andalucia) referencing his Catalan Roma heritage. 

In January 2021, Mr Girac became the father of a daughter called Eva Alba, but has never revealed the identity of the little girl's mother.