A 70-year-old man was seriously injured in a farming accident in Carrigadrohid, Macroom, Co Cork on Tuesday evening.

The Gardai said the farmer was putting bulls in a pen when one of them kicked him in the chest.

The man was taken to the Macroom GAA pitch by ambulance, from where the Air Corp’s Medevac helicopter airlifted him to Cork University Hospital. A spokesman for the Defence Forces said the air ambulance was deployed around 6pm and the flight lasted 6 minutes.

The victim remained in hospital on Wednesday.

"We respond to a disproportionate number of farm accidents," Dr Jason Van Der Velde of West Cork Rapid Response told the Irish Farmers Journal. The voluntary emergency paramedics group set up to complement the work of ambulance crews in rural Co Cork assisted the farmer injured on Tuesday.

Dr Van Der Velde said WCRR had joined campaigns by farming and health and safety organisations in the past and was eager to continue promoting farm safety in their area. "We see how people are getting injured, we know the mechanisms of injury, we have a role to play in prevention," Dr Van Der Velde said.