A 61-year-old man died after being pulled into an active MRI machine while wearing a heavy metal chain at a clinic in New York.

A man died last week after being pulled into an MRI machine by a “large metallic chain” police said he was wearing around his neck – highlighting the importance of checking for any metallic objects before going near the powerful magnets used in the medical imaging machines.

It wasn’t the first New York death to result from an MRI machine. In 2001, a six-year-old child from Croton-on-Hudson was killed at the Westchester Medical Center when an oxygen tank flew into the chamber, drawn in by the MRI’s 10-ton electromagnet. In 2010, records filed in Westchester County revealed that the family settled a lawsuit for $2.9m.