Two die in lift accidents

JAPAN: Two people died Monday after separate lift incidents in Japan, with a restaurant worker trapped in a dumb waiter and an office worker caught half-way through the doors when an elevator suddenly dropped.

A 28-year-old woman died after getting trapped in the dumb waiter at a restaurant in the central city of Nagoya late Sunday, police said. The lift, reportedly just 70 centimetres (28 inches) high by 60 centimetres wide, was designed to carry dishes between floors of the restaurant.

"An assistant manager found her stuck in the door after she didn't reply to his call," said a police spokesman in Aichi prefecture. The injured woman was rushed to hospital but died early Monday morning, according to authorities.

Broadcaster Nippon Television reported that the machinery involved in Sunday's accident was built by a Japanese manufacturer. In a separate accident in Himeji in western Japan, a male office worker died Monday afternoon "after getting stuck in a lift that suddenly descended", a police spokesman said.

The 64-year-old was making a delivery to another company when an object became wedged in the crack between the lift and the first floor, broadcaster NHK reported.

The man was standing with one of foot in the elevator and one outside when the machinery made a sudden lethal move, NHK said.

The fatal accidents came about a month after a hotel cleaner in Kanazawa was crushed to death in front of her colleague when she stepped into a moving elevator, made by Switzerland-based Schindler.

One of the Swiss firm's lifts was also involved in a fatal incident in 2006 when a 16-year-old schoolboy in Japan was crushed to death.

AFP