Man’s foot amputated after getting stuck in escalator at Shanghai mall

World Today

Man's foot amputated after getting stuck in escalator at Shanghai mall

Another horrific ‪escalator accident occurred in ‎China‬, where a cleaner at a shopping mall in Shanghai had to have the bottom of his left leg amputated after it was stuck in an escalator late Saturday.

35-year-old Zhang Shisheng, was cleaning the escalator on Saturday evening in Shanghai’s Cloud Nine Shopping Mall.

Surveillance video showed Zhang put a mop at the joint of the top platform to sweep the steps. He stepped on the mop and it suddenly became stuck in the space between steps and the top platform. As a result, the step flipped up, and his left leg was drawn inside.

Zhang was able to stop the escalator by hitting the red emergency button and was freed by firefighters around 20 minutes later. He was transported to a local hospital where his foot was amputated.

“I fell forward, and the escalator was running. It suddenly pulled my feet inside. As I work with escalators, I knew to press the red button,” recalled Zhang, who had been working at the mall for less than three months.

The escalator was produced in 2004 and had passed its latest safety check this June, according to the shopping mall.

“We reached the scene as quickly as possible. We conducted an on-site investigation on the escalator and its maintenance. We also looked at the video of the escalator and its documentation. It has been condoned off right now. The accident is still under investigation,” said Li Hui, an officer from Market Monitoring Bureau of Shanghai’s Changning District.

A total of three fatal accidents involving escalators were recorded in China last week, spreading feelings of fear, anxiety and outrage over safety protocols in China.

A similar event happened just last week when a woman in Jingzhou city, Hubei Province, died after falling through the flooring at the top of an escalator in a mall. Two days later, a toddler had his arm dragged into an escalator at a mall in Guangxi.

There have been 74 escalator accidents recorded in China during the first half of 2015, leading to 73 deaths and 82 injuries, according to China’s quality control authorities.

It also said that among the 2.3 million registered elevators and escalators in China, over 110,000 of them have safety problems.