A robotics company employee was accidentally killed by a robot used to move boxes to pallets at a produce-sorting facility in the southeastern county of Goseong.

According to the Goseong Police Station in South Gyeongsang Province on Wednesday, the worker in their 40s was grabbed by the robot while inspecting the machine’s sensors prior to a test run at around 7:45 p.m. Tuesday.

The worker, who suffered compression injuries to the face and chest, was transported to the hospital but later declared dead.

The region's agricultural export complex, which operates with the destination sort facility, started using such robots around five years ago amid a decline in farmers and the difficulty of having to stack the produce boxes at a height exceeding two meters.

The facility was in the process of changing its operational structure for increased efficiency at the time of the accident.