A boy wearing rubber sandals had his foot trapped in an escalator in Jurong Point mall on Sunday (Jul. 14) and had to be sent to hospital.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) confirmed with Mothership that they were alerted to the incident at about 7:45pm.

Upon arrival, they found a person's foot trapped in an escalator.

In pictures

Pictures of the incident were shared to Xiaohongshu by user "蜜糖熊" the same night.

The boy was shown sitting at the foot of a downward-travelling escalator, with his left foot trapped.

He was wearing a pair of blue rubber sandals.

Other pictures showed SCDF personnel and mall security trying to free the boy's trapped foot.

A crowd of onlookers had gathered to watch the rescue.

According to a Reddit user who witnessed the scene, the rescue took about 40 minutes.

One of the boy's sandals still appeared to be trapped in the escalator's mechanism following the rescue.

SCDF said they freed the trapped person using rescue equipment.

He was conveyed to National University Hospital (NUH).

According to pictures shared by 8world News on Facebook, the escalator was closed off to the public following the incident.

The area where the boy's foot got trapped was also covered with a green tarpaulin.

Not the first time

This was not the first time such footwear got caught in an escalator in Singapore.

In July 2023, a six-year-old boy dislocated his toe after his rubber sands, a Crocs Clog, got caught in an escalator at Botanic Gardens MRT station.

According to a Building and Construction Authority (BCA) report, 9 per cent of all escalator incidents from January 2023 to October 2023 were due to shoes or body parts getting trapped in the escalator steps, particularly among young children.

BCA advised escalator users to avoid leaning or standing too near to the sides of the escalators, as clothing or soft footwear may get trapped between the gaps.

Related articles:

Top image from 蜜糖熊 / Xiaohongshu