Horrifying footage has emerged showing the terrifying moment a toddler’s arm was sucked into a faulty escalator in Yuanjiang, China.
The CCTV footage shows the mum’s horror as her two-year-old son falls onto his back as his arm is sucked into the machine during a shopping trip.
You can watch the full video here:
The clip shows the terrified mum desperately trying to bend over and pick up the child, who is crying in pain, but the escalator kept on moving at a steady pace making it near-impossible for the kid to be set free.
Moments later, a security guard managed to hit the stop button, miraculously stopping the child from breaking any bones or suffering serious injury from the freak incident, which took place in the City Star shopping complex.
A security guard ran through the crowd to get to the button on July 5, preventing what could have led to horrendous injuries by just seconds.
However, the toddler’s right arm remained stuck in the gap between the escalator steps for another 45 minutes until the fire service were able to free him.
Rescue footage shows the emergency services working tirelessly to find a way to free the boy’s arm, while his mum looked on helplessly from the other side of the glass.
Fireman Liu Cheng said:
By the time we arrived, his family was basically too stricken with panic to convey any effective information regarding how the accident happened.
The boy himself wouldn’t stop crying. His entire arm was sucked into escalator.
In the end we used hydraulic equipment to prise the steps apart.
He continued:
I comforted him and told him not to cry. He was quite brave and, I think, did his best to endure the pain.
The child was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment, but by some miracle he’s not believed to have broken any bones or suffered any life-threatening injuries. The exact condition of his arm has not been reported.
By the looks of things, the little boy’s arm was saved by the quick thinking actions of the security guard and the heroic efforts from the emergency services.
Here’s hoping the little boy makes a speedy recovery and isn’t left too traumatised by the terrifying ordeal – although I think his mum might be a little more traumatised than him.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.