It may sound like a scene out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
But as two people learned in Mars' M&M factory, falling into a vat of chocolate is no sweet treat.
According to a report by CNN, the Willy Wonka-style incident happened on Thursday (June 10) in the Mars M&M factory in Pennsylvania, when two workers fell into a tank of melted chocolate.
There were no Oompa Loompas on hand to sing the unfortunate employees a song. Instead, emergency services were called. The Mirror reports that over 24 firefighters from the Elizabethtown Fired Department rushed to the scene to recover the struggling pair from the vat.
However, getting them out of the sticky situation was not as easy as it seemed. Communications supervisor for Lancaster County 911 dispatch Brad Wolfe told CNN that responders could not simply pull them out of the vat.
"Fire crews have eliminated pulling them straight out of a tank," he said, adding: "They have to cut a hole in the side of the tank to get them out."
Assistant Supervisor Nick Schoenberger of Lancaster County 911 Dispatch also spoke to the outlet, relaying that - once they had ben extricated from the chocolate - both patients were taken to the local hospital.
"One patient was transported by ground and one person was transported by helicopter," he said.
The extent and nature of the workers' injuries is still unknown. A Mars Wrigley spokesperson responded briefly to the incident, saying: "We can confirm both people have been taken offsite for further evaluation. We're extremely grateful for the quick work of first responders."
Mars' Pennsylvania factory is located 12 miles from Hershey, and is the home of a number of well-known chocolate treats including M&Ms and Dove chocolate.
As news of the incident has spread, social media has unsurprisingly been flooded with comments from people comparing it to the mishaps that take place in Roald Dahl's beloved children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
"This is straight out of Willy Wonka," one person tweeted, while another joked: "Was one of them Augustus Gloop?"
Another user seemed to quite fancy the idea of falling into a giant pot of chocolate. "Somehow it doesn't sound so bad to me," they wrote, adding: "Hope they are safe though."
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