Hyderabad: 12 persons stuck in elevator at shopping mall for over an hour, rescued

Hyderabad: Twelve people, including a pregnant woman, were stuck in an elevator at the PVR Next Galleria Mall in Malakpet late Tuesday for over an hour. They were later safely rescued by the fire department and police.

Nevertheless, the visitors said the experience was a harrowing one, blaming mall staff for failing to rescue them, following which they had to reach out to the police and fire department.

Firefighters involved in the rescue said that the elevator got stuck when the visitors were coming down from the sixth level of the mall.

The visitors said that they immediately raised the alarm, following which the technical and security personnel of the mall tried to pull them out, in vain.

Mohd Wasim, of Bandlaguda, who was one of the visitors, told Deccan Chronicle that they experienced a sudden jolt and the lift came to a halt. “Suddenly, there was smoke and we heard some noise as if something broke and it worried us,” he said.

He said the mall staff were unable to do anything. “They were saying it will be cleared in two minutes, but it went on for over an hour, without any movement. Only then did we call police and fire department. They came and rescued us,” Wasim said.

He said that many occupants of the elevator were starting to feel suffocated before they could be rescued.

Fire officer Mohd Mustafa said that they used their toolkit to bring them out. A team led by S. Anji Reddy rescued the trapped persons in around 30 minutes, he said.