Football Fans Badly Injured After Rome Metro Station Escalator Suddenly Speeds Up and Collapses
More than 20 people have been injured after a metro station escalator malfunctioned and collapsed, hurtling people towards the bottom at a terrifyingly-fast pace.
Football fans were on their way to watch the Central Sports Club of the Army (CSKA) Moscow play Roma in a Champions League match on Tuesday when the Rome Repubblica station escalator began to drastically speed up, reports 9 News.
Fans were aggressively thrown towards the bottom of the escalator and crushed in a pile-up, while others threw themselves onto the opposite side to avoid landing on those below them, as seen in a video captured by a bystander.
In the shocking footage, people can also be heard screaming and yelling, with some — who luckily were on the opposite escalator — reaching out to pull people out of danger.
After the incident — which involved more than 100 firefighters — at least 15 people were taken to the hospital, with one victim’s foot amputated from the dangerous pile-up and collapse, news.com.au reported.
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Of the victims, only six were “seriously injured” but there were, fortunately, no fatalities from the incident.
Emergency services later revealed to local news outlets that the escalator’s steps were “split and crumpled” with broken glass, beer bottles, and blood covering the area.
#Roma #metro #repubblica, aggiornamento ore 21:00: terminata la prima fase dell’intervento dei #vigilidelfuoco, tutti i feriti sono stati soccorsi e avviati agli ospedali. Prosegue l’intervento di messa in sicurezza pic.twitter.com/PpqwYlmBDm
— Vigili del Fuoco (@emergenzavvf) October 23, 2018
The Italian Fire and Rescue service also posted an update to their Twitter account shortly after with a video of them helping those who were injured out of the station.
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In the tweet, they explained that all victims with serious injuries were safely transported to a hospital.
It is unclear as to why the escalator malfunctioned but Rome’s Public Prosecutor’s Office is currently investigating the incident.