Woman dragged to her death in escalator machinery but throws son to safety

A woman has died after being 'swallowed' by an escalator in a Chinese shopping mall.

The 30-year-old woman managed to save her young son's life as the panel at the top of the escalator collapsed.

The pair were travelling up the escalator in a shopping centre in in Jingzhou, in Hubei province when the silver floor panel gave way.

The woman pushed the young boy forward and into the arms of a bystander, and shopping mall staff fought desperately to pull her to safety, but they were unable to stop the woman from being pulled into the escalator, and she fell to her death.

The incident was captured on CCTV, and has sparked widespread anger at the department store.

Local media reports said there was no immediate comment from the shopping centre, and that the cause of incident is being investigated.

The Wuham Evening News said there were unconfirmed reports that maintenance work had been carried out on the escalator recently, and workmen had replaced the metal panel but forgotten to secure it with screws.

The incident is not the first escalator accident to strike China. In 2014 an escalator in Shanghai suddenly reversed direction, injuring 13 people, and in 2011 a teenage boy was killed in Beijing by a malfunctioning escalator.