A farmworker has died in Cornwall after the machinery he was working on hit overhead power lines.

The man, who was 24 and from Poland, has not yet been named. He was working in a potato field at Kergilliack, near Falmouth, when the accident happened on Sunday morning (3 July).

It is believed he was working on potato harvesting equipment.

Cornwall and Devon Constabulary sealed off the area and guarded the scene overnight, waiting for Health and Safety Executive officials to begin an investigation into the accident.

Police detective inspector John Trott extended his sympathies and added the force was working alongside the HSE to establish the cause of the accident.

“At this early stage of the inquiry it appears an electrical power cable has been severed by farm machinery that the deceased was working on.”