Update | Chinese province halts use of all escalators after fatality as family of victim demand answers
Hubei government orders suspension of all machines built by Suzhou firm
The Hubei government has ordered the suspension of all escalators made by the company that produced the machine that malfunctioned and killed a woman, as the victim’s relatives called for answers into the tragedy.
Xiang Liujuan, 30, died in front of her two-year-old son in a Jingzhou mall on Sunday after falling into moving machinery following the collapse of the footplate of an escalator built by Suzhou Shenlong Elevator Company last July.
Rescuers had to cut open the escalator to retrieve Xiang’s body, which had been pulled inside the middle section of the escalator, Wuhan Evening News reported.
The escalator had passed a safety check in March, according to Chen Guanxin, head of the Jingzhou Work Safety Administration and who is charge of the investigation into the accident.
The escalator maker, founded in Suzhou, in Jiangsu province, in 1992, sold escalators and elevators across the mainland and to overseas markets including Russia, Malaysia and Australia, its website said.
The company could not be reached for comment.