VIDEO: Woman saves her two-year-old son before dying in escalator accident

A Chinese woman has died after being trapped in a shopping centre escalator, but not before pushing her two-year-old son to safety.

The accident in the central city of Jingzhou was caught on CCTV footage.

The woman, identified in media reports as 30-year-old Xiang Liujuan, had reached the top of the escalator when the section of landing platform she had stepped on to suddenly collapsed, trapping her inside the still-moving machinery.

The footage shows that Xiang managed to push her son into the arms of shop attendants near the top of the escalator.

[comment] Some readers may find this video distressing[/comment]

The attendants tried to pull her to safety, but Xiang fell into the mechanism and was killed.

Media reports say her body was recovered four hours later, after crews disassembled the escalator.