A top Brazilian environmentalist and government official on isolated Amazon tribes was shot with an arrow that struck him in the chest in the forest near the Uru Eu Wau reserve in Rondonia state in north-western Brazil.

One of Brazil’s leading experts for Indigenous affairs agency, Rieli Franciscato,56, died on Wednesday in an encounter with uncontacted tribes in the Amazon while trying to investigate an indigenous site.

His mourning the death, on Wednesday was witnessed by a patrol of military police and Paulo Ricardo Bressa.

“We heard the noise of an arrow which struck in the chest. He cried out, pulled out the arrow from the chest, ran 50 meters and collapsed, lifeless,” said Bressa, in an audio recording posted by Brazilian social media.