Firemen Open Escalator To Find Toddlers Severed Fingers

This is the moment firefighters find a boy’s severed finger on the bloodstained floor of a shopping centre after he trips on an escalator and the moving steps tear off three of his digits.

The accident happened while the 20-month-old was visiting the Haoyou shopping complex with his mum on 28th March, according to the Karamay fire service in China’s north-western Xinjiang region.

Footage supplied to Asia Wire shows the tot running towards the downward moving escalator when he trips and lands with both hands on the metal steps.

Video Credit: AsiaWire

A staff member rushes over and picks the boy up, but three fingers on the child’s left hand were severed by the escalator as the steps move below the serrated floor panel, emergency services reported.

While local police rushed the tot and his mum to a local hospital, the fire service was sent to the shopping centre to find his severed digits.

A fireman’s helmet-cam video shows blood on the shopping centre floor below the escalator, and one of the boy’s fingers on the tiles.

The fireman attempts to pick it up with a tissue but turns away at the sight.

Credit: AsiaWire
The bloodstained shopping centre floor where the accident happened

Xu Jie, vice captain of Karamay’s third rescue brigade, told Asia Wire: “We received reports of a boy whose fingers were severed by an escalator.

“We were dispatched to Haoyou shopping centre and asked to assist in retrieving his digits.

“We found an exposed finger on the floor by the escalator. We picked it up with a tissue and handed it to medical staff.

“When we couldn’t find any others, we began dismantling the escalator to search for the remaining fingers.

“We then found two at the very bottom of the escalator and gave them to the hospital.”

Credit: AsiaWire
Firefighters open an escalator to find a boy’s severed fingers after he falls and 3 digits are ripped off

Meanwhile, the tot had been rushed by police to the larger First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, where an emergency operation began to clean his wounds.

All three digits arrived shortly after, and they were all reattached in an operation lasting a reported nine hours, the fire service said.

The toddler remains in recovery, though it was unclear whether he would be able to regain full function of his fingers.


To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: John FengSub-EditorJoseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

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