Farmhand Dies in 25-Metre Fall While Tending Irrigation Channels in Andorra

A 46-year-old cross-border farmhand died on Monday afternoon in Sant Julià de Lòria after falling about 25 metres while managing irrigation channels in the Bordes de la Peguera area.

Police received the alert around 4pm when a colleague, concerned that the man had not returned from morning tasks at the crop heads, searched for him and found his body in a hard-to-reach spot beside a stream, submerged in a pool of water. The victim, a masover at one of the local bordes, showed no vital signs upon discovery.

Emergency services mobilised shortly before 5pm, including firefighters, police, SUM medical units, judicial police and mountain rescue teams. By around 6pm, three or four fire crews and a helicopter had reached the rugged site to aid access. Operations continued until roughly 9.20pm or 9.30pm, when rescuers moved the body to a more accessible area near a chapel on a neighbouring property—not the employer's—for initial checks by a forensic examiner. Judicial officials then approved its transfer to the national morgue or hospital.

Police have classified the incident as a workplace accident, ruling out violence. An autopsy, conducted Tuesday, will clarify the cause—whether a slip during his movements, a prior health issue or factors linked to landing in the obstructed stream.

The response involved significant resources amid challenging terrain. As of Wednesday, investigators were considering a possible pre-existing medical problem alongside an accidental fall as leading hypotheses, pending full autopsy results.