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Two mums have described a smelly 40 minute ordeal after they got stuck in a broken lift with their children who needed their nappies changing.

Nikita Brady and pregnant Shenika Pusey were trying to reach the break room of the Packhorse Shopping Centre in Huddersfield town centre when their lift came to a stop between two floors.

The two mums and their daughters, aged one and two, could see both the floor above and the floor below through the glass lift doors.

A friend, who saw what happened, went to get help as claustrophobia and the smell set in.

The group were getting desperate for the toilet and when the door was forced open prior to their rescue, Nikita pleaded for a KFC bucket to use as a temporary loo. Unfortunately the centre's food court is not home to the popular fried chicken chain.

Nikita, 33, said: "Obviously both kids had a pooey bum. It did smell. There was no air or anything getting in and it was warm."

A shopping centre employee was called to help but attempts to restart the lift failed.

As the minutes ticked by the situation was made worse by the fact that Shenika needed the toilet herself.

The 28-year-old, from Almondbury, recalled: "I needed a wee because I'm pregnant. It was getting that bad I was going to have to wee in a Pot Noodle."

More staff, including a manager at the shopping centre, arrived to try to free the women and their daughters, both of whom were becoming increasingly upset and had started to cry.

A spokesperson for the Packhorse Centre later revealed that an engineer was called but had got stuck in traffic.

When managers realised the engineer was delayed, they took the decision to call the fire brigade.

"The fire brigade managed to get the doors open from the floor above," recalled Nikita, from Deighton.

"I told them about Shenika needing a wee. I said 'she needs a KFC bucket' but they said to wait a bit longer.

"The firefighters somehow got the lift to go down and we could get out. They were good but I did get angry though, I'm not going to lie.

"We didn't even get an apology from the staff.

"If Shenika had been a bit further along the line it could have been really bad. What if she had gone into labour.

"The kids were screaming. My daughter was traumatised.

"When I got out of the lift I felt like giving everyone a kick."

The spokesperson for The Packhorse Centre said: "We can confirm that there was an incident involving two shoppers and their children in pushchairs being stuck in our disabled access lift today at Packhorse.

"The Centre team have apologised for the incident and will follow up directly with the shoppers over the weekend to ensure they are okay.

"The fire service have confirmed that the lift stopped as it had been overloaded and although there is signage currently, due to this incident we will be investing in new signage to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

Shenika added: "I've been in that lift loads of times with two prams and never had a problem.

"They said there is a sign but I didn't know there was a sign. They showed us it and it's just a piece of normal paper. I didn't see it and I wear glasses."