A man and a woman were injured when an elevator plunged several floors inside a new residential high-rise building in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
The incident occurred in a multi-story residential building located at 7 Prokatnaya Street, which was completed and handed over to residents in 2024. Video footage recorded by a security camera inside the building showed the two passengers entering the lift cabin on the tenth floor shortly before the elevator made a loud crashing noise and descended rapidly.
Reporting by the Emergency News Agency Telegram channel cited residents who said the cabin was in free fall from the sixth floor to the third floor. On the second floor, an emergency safety cable engaged, resulting in sudden deceleration before the cabin continued moving in jerks as the cable mechanism repeatedly caught it.
The man and woman were eventually rescued from the trapped elevator cabin, and both victims received medical treatment for injuries to their legs. Shortly after the rescue was completed, the elevator was returned to operation.
Residents criticize management
Building residents voiced frustration over what they described as indifference from the property management company responsible for maintaining the high-rise. According to residents, the elevator had been repaired multiple times during the past year, raising ongoing fears among occupants that another dangerous fall could take place.
Chelyabinsk is a major industrial city of over 1.1 million people located along the Miass River east of the Ural Mountains, serving as the administrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast. In contemporary Russian urban centers, multi-story apartment developments depend on private or municipal housing management companies to handle routine maintenance, safety inspections, and elevator mechanics.
The Chelyabinsk drop follows another recent elevator malfunction reported in Svetly, a town situated in Russia's western Kaliningrad Oblast on the Baltic coast. In that earlier case, a woman came close to suffocating after becoming trapped inside a malfunctioning elevator cabin.
