Cleaner Loses His Leg In 3rd Escalator Accident In China

A 35-year-old cleaner at a Shanghai mall had his left leg amputated after it became stuck in an escalator last night in the third such incredibly tragic and frightening case in just this past week.

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.

A Cloud Nine spokesperson says that cleaning of the escalators should technically only begin at 10.30pm when they are stopped.

“We are deeply pained by this tragedy which resulted because standard operating procedures were not adhered to,” he said. “We will be stepping up supervision in the execution of safety measures to make sure all employees stick to standard operating procedures to prevent similar incidents from happening in future.”

This makes the third reported escalator accident of this past week. Last Sunday, a 30-year-old woman was able to save her son but not herself in a horrific accident in Hubei province. Just two days later, a toddler had his arm dragged into an escalator at a mall in Guangxi province.

Additionally, another gruesome machinery accident happened on Thursday as a 21-year-old woman was crushed to death in elevator accident in Zhejiang province

Shanghaiist