CUTTACK: Six persons, including two women, were successfully rescued after they were trapped inside a malfunctioning elevator at the surgery department of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack for around 30 minutes on Sunday evening.
Sources said the incident occurred at around 7.25 pm when the elevator experienced a mechanical failure while descending from the second floor to ground floor of the G+2 building of surgery department. Following the incident, the lift got stuck in between the second and first floor, triggering panic among the trapped occupants, all of whom were patient relatives.
“I pressed the emergency button inside the elevator’s control panel to alert the security personnel, lift operators and hospital staff while asking other not to panic,” said Sanatan Sahu, one of the trapped occupants.
On being informed, fire services personnel from the SCB fire station rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation. “First we brought the lift to the first floor by moving the wheels anticlockwise atop the building and then rescued the trapped occupants by opening the lift door with the key which was kept with the lift operator,” said assistant fire officer Prasant Kumar Dhal.
While SCB authorities were not available for their comments, superintending engineer, Roads and Building Division, Cuttack-1 Md Shahbaz said he would look into the matter.