5-year-old girl sucked into escalator after forgetting to let go of the handrail

Distressing footage has emerged of the moment a young girl had her arm sucked into an escalator after she forgot to let go of the handrail.

The video, which was recorded in a shopping centre in the city of Hanchuan in China's central Hubei Province, shows the five-year-old riding the escalator up to the next floor together with her mum.

It shows the girl with her left hand placed firmly on the rubber handrail, but she does not let go as she reaches the floor above and the handrail rolls back underneath the floor panel.

The girl forgot to let go of the handrail. Photo / Australscope

The girl crouches down at the escalator exit and her left arm is suddenly sucked into the mechanism together with the disappearing handrail.

The poor girl is then left lying helplessly on the floor as her arm remains trapped inside the escalator.

Her mother is also nearby but can do nothing to free her daughter's arm.

The little girl getting her arm trapped in the escalator. Photo / Australscope

Members of the local fire service said they managed to rescue the girl in just 10 minutes by dismantling the plastic housing surrounding the handrail conveyor system.

The child's hand was cut and swollen, for which she was given stitches at a local hospital, but she fortunately escaped serious injuries despite the ordeal.

She is recovering after the accident, but it is still unclear whether the shopping centre has offered to pay for her medical bills.

Escalators have been the cause of many injuries and even deaths in China in recent years.

In 2015, a woman died in a shopping mall in Jingzhou when she stepped on a loose panel at the top of an escalator that gave way. The young mother managed to push her three-year-old son to safety, but she fell into the machinery's gears and was killed.

Also in 2015, China's Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) found more than 110,000 escalators that had potential safety issues.