6-Year-Old Boy Trapped In Elevator Shaft In Hyderabad Dies In Hospital

Hyderabad: A day after a six-year-old boy—who was trapped between an elevator shaft and a wall in an apartment complex and later shifted to a hospital—died while undergoing treatment at a state-run hospital, police said on Saturday. 

The boy slipped into the gap between the lift door and the wall in the Masab Tank area and remained trapped near the first floor for over two hours on Friday. 

Personnel from the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) and the Fire Department rescued him by cutting through the lift frame and floor slab using gas cutters. He was subsequently admitted to a hospital. 

The boy, who had suffered internal injuries, was declared dead at around 12.30 pm on Saturday, a police official said. 

However, the exact cause of death will be determined after a postmortem, he added. 

A doctor stated that the child had suffered from suffocation after being trapped in the elevator shaft for more than two hours. 

The boy had accompanied his grandfather to visit a relative in the apartment complex and entered the lift on the ground floor, the police official said. 

However, before the grill door could close, the lift started ascending, and as the boy attempted to step out, he got stuck between the lift and the wall, according to preliminary investigations. 

A health official said poor maintenance of the lift is suspected of having caused the internal door to fail to close properly, resulting in the accident. 

A case has been registered, and further investigations are underway.