A 79-YEAR-OLD gran was left with two broken arms when an escalator “prank” went horrifically wrong.

The Sun reports cops are hunting a pair of teenage girls after the pensioner was sent “flying down” from the top of the moving walkway when the emergency stop button was pressed.

The pensioner is awaiting surgery after the horror at an Asda supermarket in Greater Manchester in the UK on Friday afternoon.

She broke both wrists, needed 15 stitches to her forehead, suffered cuts and bruises to both legs and multiple bruises during the incident.

Detectives have described the incident as a “prank gone wrong” and hope to speak to the pair of girls who were seen in the supermarket at the time.

The elderly victim’s daughter has now asked the public to help identify the girls to aid the police investigation.

“Hi can anybody help me?” she wrote in a public post on her Facebook page.

“At about 6:30 on Friday the 18th December my 79 year old mum was coming down the escalator in Asda Stockport when 2 girls believed to be in their high teens decided to hit the emergency stop button sending my mum flying down the escalator from tithe top.

“She has been left with 2 broken arms which need operations on to fix, 15 stitches in her face and stitches to her legs plus multiple bruises. Please find some Christmas spirit and help me find the people that did this to my mum. Thank you.x”

It is understood that Asda staff rushed to help the pensioner when she fell and stayed with her until paramedics arrived at the scene.

An Asda spokesman said: “We are working very closely with police on tragic incident that happened at the Stockport store.”

Detective Sergeant Geoff Machent of Greater Manchester Police said: “We believe two women in their late teens were seen near to the emergency stop button at the time it was stopped and I would ask them to come forward. We think this may have been a prank that has gone wrong, leaving an elderly woman in hospital.”

This story originally appeared in The Sun.