Mother dies after saving toddler son
Updated: 2015-07-28 15:16
By Agencies in Beijing And Wuhan(China Daily USA)
|
||||||||
A woman was killed on Saturday after she plunged through flooring placed over an escalator at a department store in Jingzhou, Hubei province, media reports said on Monday.
The mother pushed her toddler to safety as she fell to her death on Saturday, the reports said.
Xiang Liujuan, 30, was holding her son in front of her as they went up the stairway before the accident happened, Wuhan Evening News reported.
Security camera footage of the accident posted online showed a panel in the flooring giving way as Xiang stepped off the escalator. As she fell halfway through, she pushed her son forward and a shop assistant dragged him to safety.
But the escalator continued rolling, and several seconds later Xiang was seen disappearing down into the mechanism, despite one of the staff members briefly grabbing her hand.
It took firefighters more than four hours to cut open the escalator and locate the woman, who showed no signs of life, the report said.
The newspaper cited an unnamed source as saying that maintenance work had just been carried out on the escalator in the Anliang department store, and workers forgot to screw the access cover back into place.
The accident was one of the main topics on Sina Weibo on Monday, with more than 6.6 million views.
Most comments expressed anger with the store's management.
"Why didn't staff members stop customers at the entrance to the escalator, or just turn it off?" one said.
Others were moved by the woman's final actions.
"I felt the greatness of maternal love - she wasted no time pushing her child to safety when it happened," another citizen said.
Several similar incidents involving escalator safety - some of them fatal - have been reported in recent years.
In the latest case on Monday, the left hand of a 1-year-old child was crushed by an escalator at a shopping mall in Wuzhou, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
The child has been hospitalized.
In 2012, a 9-year-old boy was killed after he became stuck in an escalator at a Beijing department store as horrified shoppers looked on.
AFP - China Daily
Surveillance camera images show that Xiang Liujuan, 30, pushed her toddler to safety as she fell to her death on an escalator at a department store in Jingzhou, Hubei province, on Saturday. Provided to China Daily |
(China Daily USA 07/28/2015 page4)
- Shaolin Temple complains to police about online accusation
- Typhoon season expected to be longer than usual
- Downpour hits Beijing
- Tian'anmen gets early makeover for grand parade in September
- China eyes deepened cooperation with overseas NGOs
- Beidou navigation system moves a step closer to global coverage
Elvis Festival pays tribute to the King of Rock 'n' Roll
Four-color rice turns paddy field into artwork
Images capture modern life of a warrior monk
The world in photos: July 20 - 26
Amazing landscape of China in white and black
Across America over the week (July 17- July 23)
Unusual but true: 'Love' conquers all
Six dead as rainstorms wreak havoc in China
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
Today's Top News
Beijing condemns Somali attack, mourns deaths
China eyes deepened cooperation with overseas NGOs
Monster Hunt breaks Chinese box office record
Olympic bid panel cites city's merits
Astronomers discover most Earth-like planet yet
Seattle Chinatown leader killed in shooting
Flight details of Obama's Kenya trip leaked
2 killed, several injured in Louisiana theater shooting
US Weekly
![]()
|
![]()
|