AN 85-year-old man has died after a fall at a Hampshire recycling centre.

The pensioner was at the Household Waste Recycling Centre in Timsbury, near Romsey, when he toppled backwards while climbing some concrete steps and hit his head.

He was taken to Southampton General Hospital following the incident, which happened on Wednesday shortly before 3pm, but died the next day.

It is understood he was with his daughter at the site and was helping her with the recycling when he fell.

Police said they were treating it as an industrial accident.

A spokesman said: “There were no suspicious circumstances, there was nothing that implied negligence on the part of the recycling centre, but we passed it to the Health and Safety Executive to investigate.”

The Health and Safety Executive said it could confirm it was now treating the incident as a fatal incident and was making initial inquiries that would continue once a post mortem took place.

The Central Hampshire Coroners’ office said it had been advised of the death of an 85-year-old man at Southampton General Hospital on Thursday morning and that a post-mortem was due to take place on Monday with an inquest to be opened later in the week.

Hopkins Recycling Ltd, based in Botley, which runs the site on behalf of Hampshire County Council, confirmed the death and said it was carrying out an investigation with the police and Health and Safety Executive, but referred all inquiries to Hampshire County Council.

Council leader Cllr Ken Thornber said: “I was very sad to hear that the gentleman had died and our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.”

He said that when the accident occurred, staff immediately went to the man’s aid and the emergency services were called at once.

He added that because of where the fall happened it was technically classified as an industrial accident and the council would co-operate with the Health and Safety Executive.

“Safety is paramount and all measures are taken to prevent accidents on any of our sites, as far as possible,” he said.

“Serious accidents at household waste recycling centres are few and far between.”