Cover image via Global NewsEscalator related incidents are quickly escalating in China
First it was the horrific death of a 31-year-old mother who was killed after falling through an escalator's floorplate at a shopping mall in Jingzhou, central China. Later, a one-year-old boy's left arm was mangled by an escalator in Guangxi.
Now, on Saturday, 1 August, a cleaner has had to have his foot amputated after his leg became trapped in an escalator in a shopping mall in Shanghai.
CCTV footage shows the man, Zhang Shisheng, placing a cloth near the top of the escalator and stepping on it to clean the escalator equipment before one of the escalator's metal floor panels give way, trapping his left lower leg.
According to BBC news report, firefighters managed to free the 35-year-old cleaner after the incident and was taken to a local hospital. However, doctors were unable to save his foot.
"The doctor said in order to prevent (the) situation from getting worse, they amputated his left calf," a family member of the victim told Xinhua.
The escalators where the incident happened have been sealed off
Image via BBC
While an investigation into the accident is still underway, media reports say the victim violated operation regulations by not shutting the escalator down first before stepping on it to cleaning it
According to the South China Morning Post, the shopping mall said Zhang had "improperly" stepped on his mop.
"The brush of the mop was trapped inside the gap in the stairs, which caused cracks in the comb plate," the mall said in a statement.
Image via Stuff
