China: Man has foot amputated after being crushed by escalator [video]

A cleaner in China has had his foot amputated after it was mangled when an escalator broke at a Shanghai shopping centre.

Surveillance footage from the shopping mall on 1 August shows two people jumping over the broken top platform of the escalator where the cleaner, surnamed Zhang, was working. The cleaner then goes over and kicks the top platform back into place before continuing to mop the area.

But moments later when he returns to continue cleaning the escalator's top platform suddenly collapses, causing Zhang's foot to become trapped underneath.

It took local firefighters about 20 minutes to free Zhang, eventually carrying him out on a stretcher. Doctors at a local hospital were unable to save his foot, and were forced to amputate it, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Authorities are now conducting an investigation into the incident, with the escalator closed off to the public.

The incident comes after a woman in China pushed her two-year-old daughter to safety as she fell to her death when an escalator collapsed beneath her feet on 26 July.