Chinese escalator horror: Mall staff 'knew footplate was broken' before mother's death
People question why shopping mall did not put up signs warning of danger after mother swallowed up while stepping onto footplate in Hubei shopping mall
Concerns over the safety of China’s public facilities swamped the internet after a malfunctioning escalator fatally swallowed a woman shopper in front of her son at a mall in Hubei on Sunday.
Xiang Liujuan, 30, was killed when the flooring at the top of an escalator collapsed as she stepped on it. She pushed her two-year-old son to safety before being dragged into the machinery, the Wuhan Evening News said. The tragedy drew wide attention on social media.
While many commentators were touched by the mother’s efforts to save her child, others were quick to question why the shopping mall allowed the escalator in question to operate.
Xiang’s husband, Zhang Wei, who was behind his wife and son, said all appeared normal when the mother and son boarded the escalator, Zhang’s uncle told news portal Thepaper.cn.
“When they were halfway from the sixth floor to the seventh floor, two assistants at the top of the escalator started to tell them that “the footplate of the escalator is broken”, the uncle said.
Footage of the horror, caught by a surveillance camera at the Jingzhou mall, shows Xiang holding her son as she prepares to get off the escalator when a footplate collapses under her feet.