A 5-year-old boy died after his right arm became trapped in a moving walkway at a resort in northern Japan on Sunday, local authorities said.
Firefighters said they received an emergency call from the boy’s mother at about 10am saying he was trapped on the autowalk in Otaru, Hokkaido. The victim was identified as Hinata Goto, who lived in Sapporo, a major city neighbouring Otaru.
The boy fell as he was trying to get off the walkway, which connects the facility’s car park and the ski slope, according to local police and firefighters. The travelator has no handrail.
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Officials at the resort said that the walkway’s emergency stop function did not operate automatically when the child became trapped, prompting his mother to press the stop button.
The emergency function, designed to automatically stop the travelator if a foreign object becomes caught, had worked during a routine inspection earlier in the day, the officials said.
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As staff at the facility were unable to free the boy, emergency workers dismantled part of the equipment to free him, the officials said.