Firefighters Brake Through Wall in India Rescue

Firefighters in Ahmedabad, India, searched for, identified and broke through a wall and cut through a metal sheet on Floor 3¾ of a building to rescue 10 women stuck in an elevator inside a completely hidden lift well, enclosed on all four sides, The Indian Express reports. Officials said that a jammed clutch of the elevator led to the lift car getting stuck on the third floor of the mixed-use building. The residential part begins on the fourth floor, so the lift is designed to go directly to the fourth floor without stopping. Due to this, there is no lift access on these floors. When the firefighters reached the scene, they tried to identify a possible area of the wall where the lift well could be located and began breaking the wall concurrently with efforts to move the lift car from its position. It took 2 h to successfully complete the rescue operation. Firefighters said that they had never seen a fully enclosed lift well extended to three stories of a building, and an official opined that lift access in some form should be available on each floor.