The two-year-old boy’s arm was torn off by an escalator at a shopping centre in Yekaterinburg, Russia – witnesses said they saw the toddler ‘crying’ as he remained conscious
A toddler’s arm has been torn off by an escalator in a horror accident after his mum took her eyes off him for a matter of seconds.
The two-year-old boy, whose mother is a Russian figure skater, had his hand and forearm dismembered by an escalator at a shopping centre in the city of Yekaterinburg. His mum is said to have “briefly lost sight” of her son as he went on the moving staircase before it “chewed” and severed his right hand and lower arm.
A pharmacist who rushed to his aid at the Botanica shopping centre said she “heard screams” and ran over to find a boy “standing there with his arm torn off”.
“There wasn’t much blood, basically, his arm [up to the elbow] was in the escalator”, she said, adding that the boy was “crying” and was “conscious”.
A man coming to the toddler’s aid “put a tourniquet on his arm” as paramedics rushed to the scene.
He later told reporters: “I heard the mother screaming.
“I saw the child standing there without an arm. I applied a tourniquet, then we bandaged him up.
“We waited for the ambulance and retrieved the arm. The child didn’t lose consciousness — he held on until the very end.”
Anastasia, the pharmacist, said she gave the ambulance ice to transport the severed limb. Sadly, doctors were unable to reattach the arm because of the damage it suffered, according to reports.
The boy’s distraught father said: “Our son is in intensive care, we are not allowed to see him yet. But we know he has been brought out of a medically induced coma.
“I wasn’t there at the time — I was rushing from work. My wife was alone with the two children. I still don’t fully understand how it happened. When I arrived, we were trying together to get [his severed arm] out together.
“We pulled it from the side of the escalator, from the compartment where all sorts of rubbish falls. It got stuck somewhere.
“Half of the escalator was dismantled under the handrail on the right side. Most likely, he put his hand on the step and it folded in.”
Another account said the mother “was holding the child’s hand when he squatted down and put his hand into the escalator”.
Detectives from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) have begun questioning eyewitnesses after opening a criminal case.
In 2023, a young boy had two toes ripped off in an accident when his Wellington boot suddenly became stuck in an escalator.
The four-year-old had been on a day trip with his family from their home in Sittingbourne, Kent, when his foot became trapped in the escalator at London Bridge Underground station. After his father wrestled his foot out of the shoe, two toes were torn out of the socket by the machinery.
The missing digits were put on ice and taken to hospital, but doctors were unable to reattach them