THIRTEEN people have been hurt, some seriously, in a “terrifying” escalator crush at the Esplanade train station yesterday.

Ambulance officers, firefighters and police were called to the scene just before 4pm.

The Public Transport Authority is investigating, with a spokeswoman saying it appeared people had fallen down an escalator.

“We have obtained CCTV of the incident and early indications are that a group of people stopped at the bottom of the escalator which prevented others from stepping off,” she said.

“This lead to several passengers falling over one another. The escalator was switched off by a passenger pressing the emergency stop switch within 30 seconds of the incident starting.

“There was a reasonable sized crowd of people who appear to have come from an event at the convention centre, but the crowd was no larger than a normal afternoon peak.”

The spokeswoman said some passengers appeared to stop at the bottom, rather than move down the platform.

“It also appears some of the passengers may have been less experienced public transport users and this may have caused them to pause at the bottom of the escalator rather than move down the platform,” she said.

“We are aware that escalators can represent a risk of injury to the general public but they are a necessary part of any major train system around the world. They have operated on our network for decades with only occasional minor injuries but no major incidents.”

A SJA spokesman said 13 people had been transferred to two Perth hospitals, the majority of whom had minor injuries, including cuts and abrasions. But he said four people were being assessed for spinal injuries.

The train station was packed with people returning home after Telethon’s Mega Bingo event at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. It’s understood some of the people injured had come from this event.

“Any injury on our system is one too many and as such we have commenced a full and thorough investigation into yesterday’s events,” said the PTA spokeswoman.

“A full safety check has been carried out on the escalator and no faults have been found.

“Further, it is worth noting that Transperth escalators are operated at a medium speed which is consistent with Australian Standards – and far slower than many other networks around the world.”

Jasmine Collins, 14, was in the station at the time of the accident. She didn’t see what happened but said it was “terrifying” scene.

“They just started evacuating everyone, pulling everyone out and then stretches started going down,” she said.

She said the station was very busy at the time of the incident and said those involved appeared distressed.

Another witness Sue Grundy said it was “horrible.”

“People were just crushed,” she said. “There was hundreds of people just coming down at once because they didn’t see what was coming so they kept coming down. They just kept coming until they stopped it

“I thought there was a fight at first because there was lots of screaming and then it turned out there was people at the bottom just rolling all over, just crushed, on top of each other.”

She said some of the injuries appeared “pretty bad”.

“The leg was really mangled and broken in bits and someone’s hair was caught and ripped skin. It was horrible,” she said.

“We have just been to the bingo. It was busy, probably a couple of thousand people coming down going towards the trains station.

“It was horrible. You don’t expect that sort of thing to happen on a day out.”