A man has died after he fell out of a street recycling container while it was being emptied into a refuse truck.

The incident happened on Het Maisveld in Arnhem at around 8am on Tuesday. Police said the man appeared to have been asleep in the waste paper container at the time.

The underground street containers are raised out of the ground by a hydraulic crane and manoeuvred above the lorry before opening at the bottom.

Council staff triggered the emergency stop mechanism when they saw the man fall in, but were unable to prevent him being seriously injured. He was taken by ambulance to hospital in Nijmegen where he died shortly afterwards.

Vanochtend is er aan het Maisveld in Arnhem een persoon in een vuilniswagen terecht gekomen. Het slachtoffer lag mogelijk te slapen in een papiercontainer toen deze werd geleegd en is zwaargewond geraakt. Voor daadwerkelijk uitsluitsel wordt er onderzoek gedaan op locatie. ^SV

— Politie Gelderland (@POL_Gelderland) May 7, 2024

Police and the council’s refuse collection service are investigating what happened, while the staff who witnessed the incident have been offered counselling.

A spokesman for the municipality said it was “too early to say” if the emergency stop procedure on the lorries needed to be reviewed.