Leg amputated after escalator horror

Video surveillance footage shows him cleaning with a mop before one of the escalator's metal floor panels give way, trapping his left lower leg. Photo / YouTube

A cleaner's leg has been amputated after it became stuck in an escalator in a Shanghai mall - less than a week after a mother was killed when she fell through an escalator floorplate in a similar freak accident.

The 35-year-old man, surnamed Zhang, was a cleaner at the Cloud Nine shopping mall in Shanghai's Zhongshan Park, state media said.

He cried out for help, shouting his leg was broken, according to Xinmin.cn, the website of the Xinmin Evening News.

His calf was so severely injured doctors had no alternative but to amputate the leg.

Video surveillance footage shows him cleaning with a mop before one of the escalator's metal floor panels give way, trapping his left lower leg.

Firefighters eventually rescued the man and he was sent to hospital where his leg was amputated from the calf down.

"The doctor said in order to prevent (the) situation from getting worse, they amputated his left calf," a family member of the victim told Xinhua.

The mall and escalator maintenance company are investigating the case.

It was the third such tragedy in a week. Last Sunday, 30-year-old mum Xiang Liujuan was carrying her two-year-old son when she stepped off the escalator at the AZG Mall in Jingzhou in Hubei province and fell through the floorplate.

She managed to push her son to safety but she was killed by the machinary below.

An official investigation later revealed the plates had worked themselves loose and were improperly designed.

A day after the death, a toddler's left hand was mangled when his arm became trapped in an escalator at the Sun Square Mall in Wuzhou, Guangxi.

The 1-year-old was reportedly with his grandmother when he tripped and fell, becoming caught in the moving steps.

Rescuers worked for half an hour to free the boy, who was taken to hospital.