A man is in hospital with serious injuries after an industrial accident at the Irving Shipyard in Halifax.

Halifax Regional Police responded to the shipyard before 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Police say the 40-year-old man was servicing a piece of equipment when he was struck by a piece of a metal, causing him to fall.

He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre with what are believed to be life-threatening injuries.

Halifax Regional Police and the Nova Scotia Department of Labour are investigating the incident. Irving Shipbuilding says it is also investigating.

“We would certainly look at whether there is any criminal element or aspects to the investigation,” said Halifax Regional Police Const. John MacLeod. “Otherwise, it will lie with the Department of Labour.”

The Department of Labour says it has issued a stop-work order on the equipment involved in the incident and the surrounding work area.

However, the department wouldn’t release any other information, including where exactly the incident happened, or what sort of equipment the man was working on.

“We have no further information to share at this time,” said a labour official in an emailed statement. “We are respectfully declining your request for an interview, as our investigation is ongoing.”

The union that represents unionized workers at the Irving Shipyard says the man who was injured is employed by a contractor at the shipyard and is not a Unifor member.

Unifor says it will be following the investigation closely, but declined to comment further, saying it will wait until a report has been issued by the Department of Labour.

Irving Shipbuilding also declined to be interviewed, but provided the following statement:

“We are not doing interviews. At this time our thoughts remain with the employee of a contractor who was injured at Halifax Shipyard and the employee’s family,” said Irving Shipbuilding. “The accident occurred outside while servicing a piece of the contractor’s equipment.”

The company did say officials were on site Wednesday to provide emotional support for workers.

The president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour says workers are injured or killed on the job far too often.

“Roughly, there’s about 1,000 workers that get killed on the job here in Canada, so any time we hear this stuff, it give us pause,” said Danny Cavanaugh. “We hope the individual that was hurt gets a speedy recovery and it doesn’t turn into another workplace death in the province.”

While the injured worker is not a member of Unifor, the union says it has set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the man and his family.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Natasha Pace