LAKEVILLE  — Police said a 51-year-old construction worker has died after a trench collapsed and trapped him under heavy, wet soil in a Twin Cities suburb.

Lakeville Deputy Police Chief John Kornmann says authorities arrived at the residential construction site around 3:45 p.m. Tuesday. He says Gerald Lyle Thompson, of Apple Valley, was laying drain tile in a trench when it collapsed.

Kornmann says fellow construction workers, including Thompson’s brother, tried to free him, but the trench continued to collapse. According to Kornmann, the trench was 6 to 8 feet deep, and the soil on top of the victim likely weighed the equivalent of a small car.

Gerald Thompson’s body was recovered around 7 p.m., and the trench was filled in. An investigation into the cause of the trench collapse is ongoing.