Hunters have shot dead a wolf in the hilly region near Utrecht, but they do not yet know if it is the “problem” wolf known as Bram and its unclear when the animal was actually killed.

The provincial authorities told Dutch News that DNA tests will now be carried out to establish if the dead wolf is GW3237m and that the results will not be known until December 12.

Only then will officials know if the hunters have killed the right animal and what the consequences are, a council spokesman said. “We issued the licence and were told by the licence holder that a wolf has been killed,” he said. “I don’t know if it is male or female or where it was shot”

The province gave the green light to a local hunting organisation Faunabeheereenheid Utrecht to shoot the wolf in July after it attacked a woman out walking on the Den Treek estate near Leusden. The wolf is also known to have attacked a child.

The licence to shoot Bram expires at the end of this year.

On Tuesday, the province of Gelderland extended the permit to shoot another  wolf which attacked a jogger in April for a further six months. That wolf, known as Hubertus or GW4655m, lives in the Hoge Veluwe national park.