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A hunter in the US state of Arkansas has died after being gored by a deer he had just tried to kill.

Thomas Alexander, 66, was hunting near the Ozark mountains when he shot the buck and watched it collapse.

Assuming the animal was dead, Mr Alexander went to check on the body - at which point the deer stood back up and attacked him.

He managed to call his wife, who rang the emergency services, but he was declared dead later in hospital.

Keith Stephens, from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, told local media that Mr Alexander's death was "one of the stranger things that's happened" in his 20-year career.

"I don't know how long he left [the deer] there, but he went up to check it to make sure it was dead," Mr Stephens said. "And evidently it wasn't."

He also told the ´óÏó´«Ã½ that paramedics had tried to take him to hospital in an air ambulance, but "unfortunately, he stopped breathing before they could get in the helicopter so couldn't be air-lifted due to efforts at CPR".

He added that there would be a post-mortem examination to determine the exact cause of death, but "the hospital did note that he had several puncture wounds".

The commission has been searching for the wounded animal.