A Donegal man has been died in a construction accident in Western Australia.

On Saturday, Sean McBride, 28, from Burtonport was working on scaffolding, based on a jetty in the town of Dampier when it collapsed into the sea.

Emergency services were called to the scene and police divers later recovered Mr McBride's body from the area.

The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs have been assisting Mr McBride's family.

The jetty was owned by the mining giant Rio Tinto Iron Ore, with the BBC NI reporting today that Gervasse Green from the company explaining: "He was with a team of contractors who were working on one of our jetties at the port of Dampier. It is a large jetty where the iron ore ships are berthed.

"They were carrying out routine maintenance work which includes work on scaffolding and the reports are that the other workers heard a flash, turned around and saw that the man wasn't there and some of the scaffolding appeared to have fallen into the water.

"Somebody jumped into the water but efforts to locate him were unsuccessful."

Mr Green said Rio Tinto Iron Ore would also conduct its own investigation into the accident: "A fatality of this nature is very unusual and it's horrifying when it does happen.

"In additional to the coroner's investigation we will do our own comprehensive investigation to see what we can do, if anything, to prevent anything like this happening again," he told BBC NI.

(BMcN/KMcA)