A woman in China was crushed to death on Saturday after falling through a panel of flooring at the top of an escalator in a department store in Hubei province.
Xian Liujuan, 30, was carrying her young son at the time but managed to push him out of harms way as she fell, reports Agence France-Presse.
CCTV footage posted to YouTube on Sunday appears to show Xian stepping off the escalator onto a metal panel, which gives way. As she falls, Xian pushes her child away from her and a shop assistant drags him to safety.
The assistant then grabs hold of Xian’s hand but the escalator keeps rolling and she disappears into the mechanism.
According to local paper the Wuhan Evening News, maintenance work had been carried out on the escalator at the Anliang shopping mall in Jingzhou and workers had allegedly forgotten to screw the access cover into place.
Xian’s body was recovered four hours later by a team of firefighters.
The video, which contains graphic scenes that some viewers may find upsetting, can be seen here.
[AFP]
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Write to Helen Regan at helen.regan@timeasia.com