US chocolate death

A man has died after falling into a vat of molten chocolate at a processing plant in the US state of New Jersey.

Vincent Smith Jr, 29, was employed as a temporary worker at the Cocoa Services factory and was emptying pieces of solid chocolate into the melting vat when he slipped from a platform into the 8ft deep unit.

The local prosecutor’s office said a co-worked tried to turn off the machine while two others attempted to pull him out but he died from a blow to the head by the mixing agitator.

Cocoa Services hires a second company, Lyons and Sons, to do the mixing.