In a shocking incident, two persons, including a differently abled man, got stuck inside an elevator at Jhandewalan Metro station for half an hour on Monday. 

The duo declined to be named, saying they are government employees working with the Income Tax Department. They were going home when the incident happened at 8.50 pm.

They entered the lift to board a train for Rajeev Chowk, but instead going up, the elevator got stuck a few inches above the ground and lost power supply.

“At first we thought it was a minor issue. But after a few moments when power was not restored to the lift, we pushed the panic button,” the man who is inflicted with polio, sweating profusely after being rescued from the lift, told Deccan Herald. The Metro and CISF staff immediately rushed for help but in vain. None of them knew about emergency rescue procedure. 

One of them even tried an improvised style of rescue by putting a bamboo stick between the doors, but it did not work. It did, however, create some space between the doors so that air and light can pass through.

Finally, half-an-hour later, two lift technicians came and had a quarrel with the Metro staff over putting the bamboo stick. The staff shot back at the technicians, saying they reached to the spot late even during an emergency. The CISF personnel and some commuters intervened and then they tried to open the door.

The technicians pulled out the bamboo stick from the doors and opened the outer door immediately. But the inner door was jammed badly. It took the technicians five more minutes to open the inner door and rescue the trapped persons. The Metro staff declined to comment on the incident, saying it was a minor technical fault.