A 9-year-old girl has died when a lift at a high-rise apartment building in Dhaka started moving up uncontrollably with the girl pinned inside the doors.
The victim, Albira Rahman, lived in a flat on the 14th floor of the building, Green Peace, located at Shantinagar, with her parents Shiplu Rahman and Umme Salma Rahman.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Md Anwar Hossain told Friday the tragedy occurred when the family were getting off the lift in front of their flat around 9:30pm on Thursday.
The apartment building, Green Peace, in Dhaka’s Shantinagar. Screengrab of Somoy TV video.
The apartment building, Green Peace, in Dhaka’s Shantinagar. Screengrab of Somoy TV video.
After her parents, Albira was getting out of the lift, but the door suddenly closed trapping her inside and the lift started moving up, he added.
“The sensors did not work, pushing and sticking her between the two sliding doors,” the police officer said.
“The lift started moving up as there were calls from the upper floors. The girl’s head was hit by the roof when it was going up,” DC Anwar said, quoting the witnesses.
Albira was taken to the Square Hospital, but the doctors there declared her brought dead, Anwar said.
Enraged residents of the building alleged the authorities did not take any step even though they knew about the faults in the lift.
One of the residents told a TV station: “The lift’s sensors are often out of order. There’s no liftman.”
The building’s governing body Chairman Mohammad Alamgir Mia, however, told the TV station it was ‘merely an accident’.
“The lift was seven to eight years old. We serviced it properly, and there was also a liftman,” he said.
