A 31-year-old mother from China miraculously saved her son’s life seconds before she fell to death in an escalator inside an upscale mall in China.
In the disturbing 30-second video, the woman identified as Xiang Liujuan was seen riding an escalator with her young son. As the escalator reaches the top, the mother lifts and pushes her son forward to prepare him to step off. Mall employees standing near the top of the escalator quickly pulled the child to safety.
When it was the mother’s turn to step off the escalator, the metal panel under her feet suddenly collapsed making her fall to her into the gap. Although two mall employees tried to save Xiang, she fell through the hole into the escalator shaft.
After four hours of conducting rescue-operation, the firefighters found Xiang’s lifeless body after finally cutting the escalator open.
Chen Guanxin, a Jingzhou local official in charge of work safety, disclosed that the accident was caused by human error. Five minutes prior to the horrific accident, mall employees discovered that the collapsed panel was loose and protruding. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to halt the escalator for inspection and repair.
Xiang’s sister-in law expressed their family’s disgust over the management’s handling of the situation.
In the popular microblogging site Weibo, she wrote: “The shopping mall is still open and the killer escalators are still running. Shoppers have no idea about the tragedy upstairs and no one knows if such disasters will strike again.”
Watch the disturbing video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmfePAt0o5c
Escalator Accidents in China
Recently, there had been several reported accidents involving escalators in China.
On Monday, a little boy’s left hand and arm were caught in a gap of an escalator in southwestern Guangxi province after the toddler tripped and fell to the bottom. The boy was hospitalised and sustained multiple trauma and fractured arm.
Meanwhile, a boy was slightly injured after having his foot stuck in an escalator in a shopping mall in Beijing on Sunday.