A one-year-old child, believed to be a baby boy, has been killed following an accident on a farm in the southeast, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has confirmed.
It is believed the accident happened on a farm near the village of Johnswell in Co. Kilkenny earlier this afternoon, a HSA spokesperson told AgriLand.
Members of An Garda Siochana were called to the scene at around 3:20pm.
An investigation will be carried out by the HSA and inspectors were still on the scene at around 8:00pm this evening. No further details on the accident are available as of yet.
This is the second fatality to occur on an Irish farm this week; on Tuesday, June 27, a farmer in his 50s sadly passed away after he was reportedly knocked into a slurry pit.
The accident is believed to have taken place at about 7:20pm on a farm in the Labasheeda area of west Co. Clare. It is believed the man was knocked into the slurry pit by his tractor and slurry tanker.
Ambulances, the fire service and Gardai from Kilrush attended the accident. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, before being removed to Limerick Regional Hospital.
Both the Gardai and the HSA have launched investigations into the tragic accident.
It appears that the deceased was offloading slurry from the tractor and tanker combination when it rolled back and hit him, a HSA spokesperson told AgriLand.
These two fatalities this week alone will bring the total number of confirmed deaths on Irish farms in 2017 to 15.
This tragic news has emerged on the same day as the HSA updated its farm safety Code of Practice for the first time in 11 years.