Authorities in central Illinois say a 47-year-old woman has died after falling down an elevator shaft.

The Bryant woman fell down the elevator shaft at the Canton business where she worked. The woman hasn't been identified. But the Fulton County coroner's office says she was pronounced dead on Wednesday afternoon at the Black Crow Candle Company.

Coroner's officials say the woman entered a back service entrance on the building's main level. They say she raised the elevator's safety gate and stepped into the shaft, falling nine feet to the basement. The elevator car was on the building's third floor. An autopsy is scheduled.

Canton is about 30 miles southwest of Peoria.