A tax inspector has been killed during an audit at the home of a dealer in antique goods in the northern village of Arras, police say.

The murder victim, a 43-year old civil servant for the tax authorities, was found dead on Monday, killed “most likely by repeated stabbing”, the prosecutors’ office in the northern French city of Arras

Officers found the victim lying on the floor and his female colleague bound to a chair at the dealer’s property in the small northern village.

The dealer’s body was discovered with bullet wounds in an outlying building, prosecutor’s office says he shot himself.

The 46-year-old businessman who collected items from private homes and car-boot sales to resell them at the farm he owned is a divorced father of two, who moved four years ago to the hamlet of Bullecourt, according to Éric Bianchin, the mayor of Bullecourt.

He was “an ordinary guy”, the mayor said, describing him as “helpful, and well-integrated in the village” of some 250 people. “I never had any problem with him,” the mayor told French media.

However, trouble clearly arose during his discussion with the team from the tax office who had gone to his home on Monday to check his books.

When the alarm was raised “by a witness” early on Monday evening, emergency services arrived at the farm to find the inspector and farm-owner dead.

His surviving colleague is being treated for shock.