Hyderabad: A three-year-old boy playing on a toy scooter at Big Bazaar in Kacheguda, slid off the escalator and was injured, on Tuesday. His condition is now stable, the police said.
Abhiram and his parents were in the toys’ section on the second floor of the mall at around 7.30 pm. The child sat on the toy scooter and video footage shows him whizzing along towards the escalator. He hit the escalator and slid off it and crashed into a beauty products stall on the first floor.
The parents of the child approached the Sultan Bazaar police late on Tuesday night and filed a complaint. “We went to the spot and saw the video footage recorded by the close circuit cameras. It is clearly shows that the parents were negligent. The child was left alone on the floor to play while the parents were shopping,” said inspector P. Shiva Shankar Rao of the Sultan Bazaar police. He added that the five-year-old’s elder brother stayed with the parents. The management of the mall shifted the boy to a local hospital for treatment and he was moved again to Lotus Children’s Hospital. The management of Big Bazaar has also blamed the parents.
“The parents took a toy scooter from the children’s section and told the child to sit on it. After taking a few snaps, they walked away into the electronics goods section as the boy refused to accompany them. When our salesman asked the boy to get down, he tried to move away and in the process slid down the escalator,” said E. Durga Prasad, the security operations manager of the store. The parents were not available for comment.
City based NGO Balala Hakkula Sangham has blamed the management of the mall for the incident. “How can the management keep toys near the escalator, knowing well that children will play in the designated area?” questioned Achyuta Rao of the NGO.
He added that someone should be posted near the escalator to ensure safety of visitors.
