A 68-year-old woman was shot dead by her husband after he mistook her for a monkey raiding their fruit trees, the media reported today.

Meah Hamid was plucking mangosteens from a tree behind their house in central Malaysia's Pahang state when her husband came by and saw the branches moving, the New Straits Times said.

Thinking it was a monkey, the 70-year-old man took a shotgun and fired at the tree only to hear his wife cry out in pain, it said. He rushed her to a clinic but she succumbed to her injuries on the way.

Attend wife's funeral

Police said shotgun pellets hit Meah's face and chest, and have detained the man for causing death through recklessness. Initial investigations showed he did not know his wife was in the tree, they said.

The man was allowed to attend his wife's funeral. The couple, who have been married for four decades, have 13 children, more than 100 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, news reports said.