Soap mixer machine kills employee

Tema, June 10, GNA - Tragedy hit the Delta Agro Limited in the Tema Industrial Area on Friday morning, when a 20-year-old employee, died instantly after a soap mixing machine dismembered his left hand from his body.

The body of Daniel Afonote, the deceased, has been subsequently sent to the Police Hospital Morgue in Accra.

The Lebanese-owned company is located opposite the Nexans Cable Limited.

Mr Nitus Kofi Nartey, a Laboratory Assistant, described the incident as terrible when he briefed the Ghana News Agency at the Company's premises. Mr Nartey said he was in his office at about 07:05 hours when he heard shouts from the factory.

He said when he rushed to the factory he saw the body of Afonote lying on the ground while his left hand, which had been chopped off, was in the machine; adding that the hand remained in the machine for about an hour till personnel from the Community One Police Station visited the scene, and took the body together with the hand away.

The Laboratory Assistant explained that in the production of soap, soap noodles are manufactured and then put into the mixer and mixed with some chemicals before shaping them.

He said the chemicals were normally added to the noodles in the mixer before the machine was powered, adding that he suspected that the victim might have attempted adding the chemicals while the machine was in operation, hence the accident.