A middle age cleaner last night tragically lost his left in an escalator accident.
A 35-year-old cleaner at a Shanghai mall lost his left leg after it got stuck in an escalator last night.
CCTV footage released by Cloud Nine Shopping Mall has revealed what transpired in moments before the accident.
At 10.21pm that evening, the mall was closing for the day but the escalator leading to the metro station was still in operation. Minutes later, 35-year-old cleaner Zhang is seen standing on a mop where the stairs meet the floorplate, using his weight to clean the steps of the escalator.
A section soon gives way and Zhang’s left leg is stuck inside the escalator. By pressing a red button, Zhang was able to immediately turn off the escalator.
Rescuers arrived at the scene at 10.50pm with equipment and eventually managed to free him from the escalator, and send him to the hospital, where the decision was later made to amputate his leg because it was so badly mangled.
In pain from the amputation, Zhang, who had just started working at the mall in May, tells local reporters that a similar incident had happened with this escalator just a fortnight ago, and he had reported the malfunction to management then.