Woman Loses Her Leg After Allegedly Forcing Her Way Onto An Under Maintenance Escalator
However, her family members claim otherwise.
By Sadho Ram — 24 Jul 2019, 01:06 PM
An elderly woman in China lost her left leg in an escalator incident
The incident happened in a shopping mall in the Heilongjiang capital of Harbin on 20 July, when the woman, believed to be in her 60s, was "swallowed" by the escalator.
A video of the incident that went viral showed the woman holding onto the escalator handle while her body from waist down was trapped in the gap.
AsiaOne reported that by the time firefighters were able to free her, the woman's left leg had already been severed at the knee and her right foot was mangled.
While family members claim that the escalator had been running normally before the steps gave way, eyewitnesses claim otherwise
"There wasn't even anywhere for her to jump to," one of the family members claimed.
However, some of the people who were at the scene tell a different story.
Shanghaiist reported that the escalator was under maintenance and workers had been putting it through some trial runs when the woman forced her way on it.
The woman had insisted on going on the escalator despite barricades surrounding it, according to several eyewitnesses interviewed at the scene, AsiaOne reported.
"It was still under maintenance but she insisted. You couldn't stop her at all," said a bystander, to which another agreed, saying: "They were still testing the escalator when she insisted on going on it. So she stepped on and everything gave way."
While authorities have now launched a full investigation to determine the actual cause of the accident, this is not the first escalator-related incident which had led to amputations
A few years ago, a cleaner had to have his foot amputated after his leg became trapped in an escalator in a shopping mall in Shanghai.
A couple of years back, a woman suffered fractures on her toes after her left foot was stuck in the escalator at the Empire Shopping Gallery in Subang Jaya.
There have been other similar escalator-related incidents over the past couple of years.
