A Health and Safety Authority (HSA) spokesman told the Irish Farmers Journal this Tuesday that the death of a Co Kerry farmer was being investigated as a workplace accident.

Jim Kean's body was found during a Coast Guard search and rescue operation last Thursday.

The farmer, who was in his 70s, had last been seen on the previous Monday morning. He is understood to have been working on rented land along the river at Dysert in Lixnaw.

His empty tractor was found in the river on Wednesday afternoon and a search operation was launched. This included the gardaí and Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue, which operates as part of Irish Coast Guard resources.

Searches by boat and on foot took place on Wednesday night and resumed at first light on Thursday, continuing through the day.

If confirmed as a farm death, this will be the 15th such fatality so far in 2016.

Thomas Hubert contributed reporting for this story.

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