Boy falls to death in lift shaft in Mumbai's Dharavi

MUMBAI: A five-year-old boy stepping out of a lift on the fourth floor of a Dharavi building died when the lift moved up and he fell down the open shaft on Saturday. CCTV footage showed the door to the lift on that floor closed on Huzaifa Sarfaraz Shaikh and pushed him into the shaft after the lift had moved on.
The camera in the lift showed the boy stuck for a while between the sliding shutter door of the lift, which he had closed shut moments before, and the wooden door to the lift on the floor.
Shaikh died after sustaining severe head injuries in the fall.
The accident took place in the seven-storey Kozi Shelter building in Palwadi, Dharavi Cross Road.
Shaikh had got into the lift on the ground floor around 12.45 pm and was accompanied by his two sisters, one seven years old and the other three years old.
When the lift arrived at the fourth floor, the two girls got out, but Shaikh could not.
The father of the deceased boy works in a garments shop while his mother is a homemaker.
The police urged residents to ensure that children do not travel alone in a lift.
There were reports that Shaikh's mother discovered that there had been a mishap only after half an hour of the incident, when she went looking for him and spotted blood stains on the lift.
In the CCTV footage, the button for the sixth floor shows red in the footage, indicating someone on that floor had called for the lift.