Those signs that say, “No climbing on the escalator”, are there for good reason. Because in the average shopping mall, it’s a five-metre drop to the floor below. And this is what a young boy in Nanjing experienced a few days ago after climbing onto an escalator handrail for fun.
The unnamed boy’s shocking fall occurred sometime after 21:00 on 3 September, at the Hailecheng (海乐城) Shopping Centre in Lishui District of Nanjing City. The mall is located just off the roundabout that constitutes the very centre of Lishui.
As a typical 5 or 6 year old, the young lad bursts full of curiosity about the outside world. Without a chaperone, he was attracted by the moving handrail of the escalator and decided to climb on to it.
After losing his balance, the boy clung on to the rail for dear life with only his hands, while dangling over the side as the escalator progressed forward and downward. He managed to hang on for 8 seconds before losing his grip and falling to the floor below.
Seeing the incident unfolding, a shopper nearby rushed to try and assist the boy. Running onto the escalator, she was unfortunately a fraction of a second too late to save the boy from his fall.
Captured by a surveillance camera mounted directly above the escalator, footage of the fall has gone viral after being released in a video report by The Paper, which can be seen via this link.
Emergency services were quickly on the scene to transfer the injured boy to a hospital in downtown Nanjing for treatment.
Speaking with reporters, a shopping clerk told reporters that before the incident, the boy had come to the store with two adults. It appeared they had gone shopping accompanying three children.
Shop assistants also spoke of their morning meeting the following day, when management staff told clerks to remind customers to pay attention to the safety of children and not to let them out of their sight.
While some shopping malls have installed protective nylon nets or Perspex panels on the open side of escalators, China Regulations TSG t7005-2012 (Regulation for Lift Supervisory Inspection and Periodical Inspection－Escalators and Moving Walks), updated in 2019, reveals that there are no mandatory requirements to do such.
