A 55-year-old woman has tragically died after her scarf appears to have become caught in the sorting belt of machinery at a factory near Huelva in southern Spain
A factory worker has died in a freak accident after the scarf she was wearing became tangled in machinery.
Paramedics and other emergency responders raced to the factory in the town of El Campillo near Huelva in south-west Spain but there was nothing they could do to save her. The alarm was raised around 7.30am this morning.
It is understood that the woman was found lying on the floor with a scarf which had become caught up in a sorting belt at the factory. A spokesman for an emergency response coordination centre said: “We can confirm a 55-year-old woman has died after the scarf round her neck got caught up in a conveyor sorting belt at a factory in El Campillo.
“We received the first calls just before 7.30am seeking urgent medical assistance for a woman who was on the ground. Police, firefighters and medical responders were among those mobilised but there was nothing they could do to save her and she was pronounced dead at the scene.”
Separate investigations by police and health and safety officials were underway today. A post-mortem is expected to show she died from strangulation according to local reports. El Campillo is an hour’s drive north of the provincial capital Huelva.
In March 2023 a 91-year-old man was strangled to death by his own scarf after it became tangled in a power drill he was using while doing DIY at home. Antonio Campo, who lived in the Italian town of Acate, in Ragusa, southern Sicily, was suffocated when the garment got caught up in the electric drill and formed a tight knot around his neck.
His wife, who has not been named, was also at home but only realised what had happened when it was too late, according to local media reports at the time. In 2019, a 58-year-old woman in France died in front of her 15-year-old son when her scarf got stuck in a food processor. They had been baking together at home in Saint-Etienne when the freak accident happened.