SINGAPORE: A young boy’s foot got stuck in an escalator at Jurong Point on Sunday (July 14). After officers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force freed him, he was brought to National University Hospital.
Because there were many witnesses to the incident, photos and videos were shared on Reddit, Facebook, and TikTok, and the boy can be heard crying and screaming in some of the videos.
@pravinmah1508 Little boy stuck at jurong point escalator .. Rescue team under progress
Other photos show a man, presumably the boy’s father, holding him as the officers freed his foot. The SCDF officers freed the boy after around 40 minutes. News reports say that around 20 officers came to Jurong Point in response to the incident.
The incident occurred sometime before 8:00 pm on Sunday, with the officers saying they received a request for assistance by 7:45 pm.
By around 8:30 pm, the officers lifted the boy onto a stretcher after he was freed, and witnesses say that the crowd that had gathered broke out into applause.
Photos shared online after the boy was taken away showed a small blue shoe resembling a Crocs-type sandal stuck in the escalator. The escalator was closed for maintenance after the incident.
In September 2023, an Australian news site reported that Crocs had been banned from airports, train stations, and shopping centres after a series of worrying incidents occurred involving the shoe.
Crocs, which are made of foam, are popular among children and even some adults as they are easy to put on and are non-slip.
However, following multiple incidents, signs were posted on escalators banning the shoe, which can get sucked into and caught on the moving stairs’ mechanism.
A four-year-old girl from Sydney nearly lost her foot after it got caught in an elevator at the airport.
“I was trying to pull her shoe out but then she started getting really hysterical and I realized something was wrong,” Lisa Brennan told Yahoo News Australia.
“So I started shouting at people to please press the emergency stop button but people in front of me just didn’t understand what was happening. A guy behind me that could see her foot was stuck, so he jumped over me and ran down and pressed it.”
This is why you don’t wear crocs on the escalators!
byu/SnooDingos8800 inDisneyWorld
In 2019, the SCDF called in after a little boy’s foot got stuck in the escalator at Jewel Changi. In May of the previous year, a five-year-old boy sustained a cut on his toe after the slipper he was wearing also got stuck in an escalator. /TISG
Read also: SCDF called in after boy’s foot gets stuck in escalator at Jewel Changi