AN investigation has been launched after a man died in an industrial accident at a grain grinding mill.
The 49-year-old was killed yesterday at East Coast Viners Grain in Drumlithie, near Stonehaven.
The worker, who has not been named, is thought to have been a contractor who was visiting the Aberdeenshire plant and not one of its employees.
A spokesman for Grampian Police said they were called to the business along with other emergency services after the accident, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Graham Forbes, one of the managing partners of East Coast Viners, said he was distraught over the man's death.
He said: "I'm absolutely appalled, I don't know what quite has happened, but it's hellish somebody should be killed.
"There's always risks involved when you're dealing with forklift trucks and pallets of stuff, but I think something fell on the man.
"I don't think it was one of our employees, I think it was an employee of an incoming contractor who was picking up something, but I have no idea of the circumstances."
East Coast Viners Grain, which produces animal feeds for cattle, poultry and sheep across Scotland, were fined £4000 in 2011 when worker Douglas Mortimer climbed on to an excavator bucket and fell about five-and-a-half feet on to a concrete floor.
He was knocked unconscious in the incident and had to spend a night in hospital.
A Grampian Police spokeswoman said: "Grampian Police can confirm they were in attendance at a work related death at a mill in Drumlithie, near Stonehaven.
"The incident was reported to police about 10.12am on Monday, March 18. Unfortunately, a man aged in his 40s suffered fatal injuries."
The man is the third person to die in an industrial accident in Scotland this year. Last week, a 29-year-old man was been crushed to death by a falling tree while carrying out felling work while working at a farm near Kirriemuir in Angus.
Tayside Police and an ambulance crew were called to the scene at Auchendorie Farm in Westmuir at around 1.45pm.
Equipment on the farm was used to release the man from under the tree, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
And last month, Petere Ord, from Nairn, died in an accident at a sawmill in the town.
The 40-year-old is thought to have been crushed by machinery at John Gordon & Sons' premises. Police and health and safety officials are now carrying out an investigation into the tragedy.
The emergency services were alerted shortly after 8am on Wednesday, February 27, with one fire appliance from Nairn and an accident and emergency tender from Inverness called to the scene.
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