Woman dies after falling down elevator shaft
This morning a woman fell down an elevator shaft to her death at the Sanlam Centre in the Central Business District.
A power outage caused the elevator to stop between the third and fourth floor. As the Fire and Rescue Team opened the elevator door on the third floor the victim allegedly jumped out and landed wrong, causing her to fall backwards into the open gap, down the elevator shaft.
The power outage was due to Stage 2 Loadshedding that went into affect this morning.
Witbank 911 assisted the Pathology Services to extricate the body from the bottom of the shaft, which took over an hour. Hundreds of people crowded around the yellow police tape to see the commotion.
An employee from Otis, an elevator maintenance and repair company, said that an investigation team will look into the incident.
The employee from Otis was apparently en route to assist the fire and rescue service to get the people out safely.
However when he arrived he heard that they had already opened doors and that the woman had fallen down. The victim has not been formally identified as of yet.
