Chinese mom saves son before falling to death inside escalator

BEIJING — Security camera footage has emerged of a mother saving her young son's life seconds before losing her own on an escalator in China.

The 30-second video begins innocently enough: As the escalator in a shopping mall almost reaches the top, a woman in a white shirt and black skirt lifts up her young son to get ready to step off.

But as she does, a metal panel suddenly collapses under her feet and she falls into the gap.

Struggling with only her upper body above the structure, the mother is seen pushing her son forward. The boy is quickly pulled to safety by a mall employee standing near the top of the escalator.

Two other mall employees try to drag the trapped woman out — but within a few seconds she disappears through the hole, into the escalator shaft.

Despite a four-hour rescue operation at the upscale AZG Mall in central China, firefighters declared the woman dead when they finally cut the escalator open and found her body Sunday afternoon, state media reported.

Police in Jingzhou, a city of more than five million residents in Hubei province, told CNN on Monday that the case was still under investigation.

State media have identified the victim as a 30-year-old stay-at-home mother. They also quoted sources saying that workers forgot to screw down the panel after maintaining the escalator between the sixth and seventh floors.

CNN's repeated phone calls to the shopping mall and the local safety inspection authorities went unanswered Monday. A representative from the maintenance service provider declined to comment.