CAMDEN (New Jersey) - AUTHORITIES say a man has died after falling into a vat of melted chocolate in a New Jersey processing plant.

The Camden County prosecutor's office identified the victim as 29-year-old Vincent Smith II. He was a temporary worker at the Cocoa Services Inc plant.

The accident happened on Wednesday morning as Smith was loading chocolate into a vat where it's melted and mixed before being shipped elsewhere to be made into candy.

Prosecutor's spokesman Jason Laughlin says a co-worker tried to shut off the machine and two others tried to pull Smith out of the 2.5m-deep vat. He was hit and fatally injured by the agitator that mixes the chocolate.

Cocoa Services hires a second company - Lyons and Sons - to do the mixing. -- AP