A woman was killed after falling into an escalator in a shopping centre in central China, local media report. Surveillance footage from Sunday’s incident shows a metal panel at the top of the escalator giving way, causing the woman and her toddler to stumble. The woman, identified by local media as Xiang Liujuan, 30, was able to push her child to safety as she fell in. The incident in Jingzhou, in Hubei province, has sparked widespread anger at the department store. BBC reports:
The woman fell into the escalator at 10:09 local time (02:09 GMT) on Sunday, state broadcaster CCTV and newspaper Wuhan Evening Newsreported. Employees standing at the top of the escalators tried to pull the woman to safety, but were unable to stop her from being pulled in.It took until 14:00 for rescuers to retrieve her body, CCTV said. There was no immediate comment from the shopping centre, but local authorities are investigating the incident, media reports said.Unconfirmed reports said that maintenance works had been carried out on the escalator recently, and workmen had replaced the metal panel but forgotten to secure it with screws, Wuhan Evening News said.
