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Woman hospitalised after falling through travelator in China

Shanghai Fire Department Woman trapped in travelator being rescuedShanghai Fire Department
A woman was rescued after being trapped in a travelator in Shanghai, China

A woman has been rescued after becoming trapped in a travelator - a moving walkway - in a Shanghai supermarket, an official has told Chinese state TV.

The woman's lower body fell through the faulty travelator, which had a missing floor plate, last Thursday.

After being trapped for half an hour, the woman was rescued by firefighters.

Her husband, Mr Lu, said she was in intensive care, had undergone two operations, needed a skin graft and was at risk of infection and amputation.

The deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Supervision (SMAMS), Su Dongjun, told the CCTV network that all teams involved in the running of the travelator - including the maintenance and installation units - were under investigation.

Shanghai Fire Department The trapped woman was rescued by the fire departmentShanghai Fire Department
It took the Shanghai Fire Department 30 minutes to rescue the trapped woman

Mr Su added that preliminary findings showed the incident was caused by the travelator's pedal fixing ring moving out of place, which caused the pedal to fall off, and led to the failure of the travelator's automatic stop mechanism.

The Shanghai government on Monday announced that SMAMS had recently conducted a month-long safety investigation into the city's escalators and moving walkways and had so far inspected more than 4,000 escalators and moving walkways. More than 100 technical problems were found.

Incidences of people falling through travelators or escalators are dangerous and can cause life-changing injuries, and even death.

The incident in Shanghai is not an isolated event.

In 2019, an engineer working on a travelator at Waterloo Station in London was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics after becoming trapped.

In China, in 2015, a woman lost her life after falling through an escalator at a shopping centre moments after saving her son's life.