9-yr-old gets stuck in gap between lift, door; crushed as lift moves up

india

Updated: Oct 19, 2019 11:05 IST

A nine-year-old girl died after she got stuck within the narrow space between her building’s elevator and its duct on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Friday, the police said.

Lasya Yadav was taking the lift up to the third floor at around 12.30pm in her house in Hastinapuram North Extension Colony when the accident happened, police said. Her family had recently moved to the newly-built three-storied house.

Her leg accidentally got stuck in the narrow gap between the lift doors and the duct. Before she could pull her leg out, someone pressed the button on the third floor and the lift started moving up even when its outer grill was open.

“As a result, part of Lasya’s body also got crushed between the wall of the duct and the lift,” the police said.

Her father Chandrasekhar Yadav immediately called the ambulance service and also the lift maintenance staff, who rushed to the spot. They struggled for nearly two hours to rescue Lasya.

“She was immediately taken to the nearby hospital, where she was pronounced brought dead,” the police said, adding that a case of accidental death was registered in the case.

The president of the state child rights association, P Achyuta Rao, expressed grief over Lasya’s death and blamed it on the substandard elevators being used in buildings without following the safety norms.

Rao demanded that the municipal authorities should give permission to builders only after certifying the fitness of the elevators to be installed.