A four-year-old girl plunged four storeys through an elevator shaft at a downtown London mall Friday in a freak accident that left her in hospital and witnesses badly shaken.

Police are investigating how the unidentified girl — she was in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries — wound up in the lower-level parking garage at CitiPlaza, the former Galleria London, falling from the second floor where a ground escalator leads.

Witnesses described how child’s play quickly turned into the horrifying fall for the girl.

They say the four-year-old was playing around the escalator at the mall’s south side, in the centre court atrium, with about three other children, when she grabbed onto the outside of the escalator’s moving railing.

The railing towed the girl, who was hanging onto the outside of the escalator, to the top of the mechanical stairway where she ran into a barrier that forced her to fall, said Jerzy Smolarek, who watched the drama unfold.

“I walked by and I was going to say not to do that,” Smolarek said of the little girl.

“I heard a scream and I turned around,” he said, adding “she had nowhere to go. I saw her fall.”

London police, investigating the 15-metre fall, responded about 5 p.m. along with paramedics.

It was not immediately clear who was supervizing the little girl and where they were.

The child fell from the mall’s second floor, down a glassed elevator shaft — the elevator goes from the underground parking garage to the mall’s upper floor — to the bottom of the three-level parking area.

Rescuers had to break through a thick glass pane in the underground lot to reach the child.

Mall staff closed the escalator immediately after the fall.

“We are deeply saddened by the event that has taken place this afternoon,” said senior property manager Bonnie Wludyka in a statement.

“We are unable to comment other than to say our thoughts and prayers are with this little girl and her family.”

Safe escalator use, especially for children, is a main focus for the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation, a non-profit group that operates in the United States and Canada.

The organization has a Safe T Riders program specifically for children with videos, trivia and activity sheets about how to use elevators and escalators safely.

London police were in the early stages of their investigation, trying to determine whether the child’s parents were there when the girl fell, said Const. Michelle Romano.

jbieman@postmedia.com