Nearly 30 people were slightly injured after they tumbled down and crashed onto one another while scrambling up an escalator at a Bangkok Transit System (BTS)’s Surasak station in Bangkok’s Bang Rak district on Saturday evening.
According to a statement issued by skytrain operator BTS, the incident occurred at about 6.38pm while it was raining when a large number of commuters scrambled up an escalator at the BTS’ Surasak station on Pramuan road after attending a concert celebrating the 170th founding anniversary of Bangkok Christian College.
The incident happened when some people at the top end of the moving escalator tripped and fell. They tumbled down the escalator, causing other commuters to fall and crash on one another. Twenty-eight people, most of them women, were reported to have sustained minor injuries.
Rescue workers of the Ruam Katanyu Foundation reported that they rushed the injured to hospitals for treatment – three women to Lerd Sin Hospital, two women to Police General Hospital, eight women to Chulalongkorn Hospital, two (a man and a women) to Saint Louis Hospital, three women to Taksin Hospital, two women to Charoen Krung Pracharak Hospital, two women to Nakornthon Hospital, four women to Theptarin Hospital, one boy to Somdech Phra Pinklao Hospital and one (sex not reported) to Bangkok Christian Hospital.
The escalator was closed to service for examination after the incident.
BTS said in its statement that the company would take care of the injured. It denied an earlier report that the incident took place after the escalator malfunctioned.
Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt was reported to be also at the station for inspection.
