A woman has been crushed to death by a shocking escalator collapse but managed to save her young son who was with her.
Xian Liujuan, 30, was with her son on an escalator at a department store in Hubei province, China on Saturday when the floor fell away beneath her and she we crushed by the rolling mechanism, reports TIME.
In shocking CCTV footage which emerged on YouTube on Sunday Xian appears to be ready to step off the escalator with her son when the metal panels give way however she somehow manages to push the boy into the arms of a shop assistant. Another store worker tries to pull Xian out of danger but she quickly is pulled into the gaping shaft.
The woman’s body was recovered four hours later by firefighters.
Local news outlet Wuhan Evening News alleges that maintenance work had been carried out on the escalator at the Anliang shopping mall in Jingzhou and workers had reportedly not secured the access cover properly.
