According to a police source, Michael Buffamante of Hawthorne, New York, was leaning over a tank at the Coney Island Wastewater Treatment Plant when he hit his head and fell into the 35-foot deep water. An investigation into the incident is on-going, police said.

FDNY divers were called in to remove the man from the tank, but when he was recovered he was already in cardiac arrest, the FDNY said. It took eight minutes for the FDNY to find Buffamante, as there was no visibility in the tank and he had sank to the bottom, officials said.