4-year-old boy has arm ripped off by mall escalator in China

A 4-year-old boy has lost his arm in another escalator incident in China.

The boy was climbing up a down-moving escalator in Rainbow Shopping Centre, in the city of Nanchang, when he suddenly fell.

His right arm got caught in the machine while in full view of his horrified mother.

After frantically trying to free him from the escalator's grip but to no avail, she called for help.

Passers-by rushed to assist by pressing the emergency stop button.

However, the damage was done as the escalator severed the boy's arm at the elbow.

He was immediately rushed to hospital where he underwent several hours of emergency surgery, according to a Shanghaiist report.

Daily Mail reported that the 4-year-old suffered severe bone fractures in his right arm - which had been snapped in half - but doctors were able to complete the operation, and successfully reattach his arm.

According to Huanqiu of People's Daily Online, the child will still need to remain under observation for at least a few weeks to ensure proper blood flow to his reattached limb.

The mall confirmed the incident, that happened on June 1, in a statement to Jiangxi TV, and said that staff members took emergency measures to save the boy before he was sent to the hospital.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident but an addition to the growing archive of escalator-related accidents in China.

Last year, several incidents occurred including a toddler in Jiangxi losing a finger, a boy in Guizhou getting his hand caught in the escalator, a young girl's fatal plunge from the fourth storey in a Kunming mall, and an infant in Shanghai falling three storeys to death after his grandmother had lost balance on the escalator.

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