Man airlifted to hospital after Donegal factory accident

A man has been airlifted to hospital in Co Donegal after suffering serious chest injuries in a factory accident.

It is understood the victim, who is 66-years-old, was run over by a workplace vechicle. It was initially believed he had been the victim of an explosion.

The incident occurred just before 4pm this afternoon at the North West Wood Products premises in Summy, Portnoo.

The Coastguard said it was a “life or death” situation at the time of the call and scrambled a helicopter from Co Sligo for a rapid response.

He was airlifted to Letterkenny General Hospital at 4:40pm arriving about 10 minutes later.

An investigation into the accident will now be undertaken by the Health and Safety Authority which is standard procedure.

Gardaí and an ambulance attended the scene.

Portnoo residents said they were in shock at the news with one saying: “He’s an extremely popular man in the area and this appears to have been a tragic accident.”

Immediately after transporting the casualty to hospital, the Sligo based helicopter was called to Galway to transfer a heart patient to the same hospital.