DETROIT — Detroit police discovered a 55-year-old man dead inside a manhole Wednesday about 3:20 p.m. in the area of East Grand Boulevard and Chene Street in Detroit.

He entered the sewer via a manhole on the north side of Interstate 94 near the General Motors Corp. Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant.

Emergency personnel wearing yellow hazardous material suits with air tanks on their backs descended into the subterranean manhole. They used ropes and pulleys attached to a teepee-shaped tripod that stood above the pole to bring the body to the surface.

Firefighters, hand over hand, pulled on the rope until the man emerged. EMS, firefighters and City Lighting Authority personnel blocked the view with their bodies and vehicles, placed the man on a stretcher and transported him from the scene about 6:45 p.m.

A nearby light pole has had its wiring removed, most likely from scrappers. Detroit Firefighters retrieve a man's body from a manhole on East Grand Boulevard near Chene Street on Wednesday evening. Police believe the 55-year-old man died while trying to extract scrap metal from the under light pole to sell, April 24. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive)

It's believed the victim and his girlfriend were looking for metal to scrap underground near a city of Detroit light pole, police said in a release Wednesday evening.

"The victim entered the manhole while the witness waited for him on the street," police said. "However, he never resurfaced."

Police have not revealed the victim's identity.