Two Arrested After Hong Kong Escalator Suddenly Reverses Direction, Injuring 18

Two men have been arrested following a dramatic escalator incident in a Hong Kong shopping mall over the weekend, which left more than a dozen shoppers injured.

CCTV footage from the mall in Kowloon’s Mong Kok neighborhood shows a 45-m-long ascending escalator suddenly reverse direction, sending shoppers tumbling to the bottom, the South China Morning Post reports. An investigation was launched into what caused the apparent malfunction on Saturday, in which 18 people were hurt.

Witnesses told the Post that the escalator was moving faster than normal at the time of the accident, and that afterward, more than 10 people were piled up at the base. Two people out of the 18 injured are still in hospital.

The two men, both escalator technicians, were arrested for perverting the course of justice after they were suspected to have handled the escalator’s mechanical parts following the incident.

[SCMP]