Employee's Fingers Mangled in Swedish Meatball Mishap

SKARA, Sweden -- An employee's hand was chewed up by a machine at a Swedish meatball factory, causing him to lose two fingers after the freak meat-grinder accident.

The 60-year-old man, who worked at the Scan AB meatball plant in Skara, southern Sweden, was injured as he tried to fix a jammed meat grinder at 7:00am local time Tuesday.

The man, who has worked at the factory since 1997, repeatedly stuck his arm into the grinder to clean it out but found the machine still jammed when it restarted.

"First, he was forced to open the machine several times, which has a safety mechanism that causes it to stop automatically," Margareta Thorgren, a spokeswoman for Scan AB, told The Local.

Thorgren added, "He then attempted a maneuver whereby he left the machine running and then stuck his hand up inside from the bottom, at which point his hand became caught in the machine, and he injured his fingers."

The man was taken to the hospital, but it was unclear exactly what injuries he sustained. An investigation was set to take place at the factory.

"This is an extremely unfortunate incident," Thorgren added. "Luckily, it doesn't happen that often."