October 24 – Authorities in Rome have launched an investigation after more than 20 people, mostly fans of CSKA Moscow, were injured when a crowded escalator suddenly speeded up and then collapsed.
The fans were in the Italian capital for CSKA’s Champions League game against AS Roma on Tuesday and firefighters had to work for around an hour to remove many trapped between the metal plates of the escalator’s steps.
The station was full of Russian fans at the time as they headed towards Rome’s Olympic Stadium. Italian media reported that the escalator broke after chanting fans started to jump up and down. Footage shared on social media showed people being crushed at the bottom as stairs on the escalator crumpled.
“I just experienced a scene from the apocalypse,” one witness told Repubblica newspaper. Surgeons operated on one man in his thirties in the hope of saving his foot.
The city’s transport infrastructure is notoriously chaotic but the local transport authority said maintenance checks on the station’s escalators were carried out on a monthly basis.
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