All 20 people, including two children, managed to free themselves from the elevator in the 634-meter-high skyscraper Tokyo Skytree, in which they were stuck for more than five hours last night. No injuries were reported, reports TASR with reference to NHK television.
- 20 people, including two children, were rescued from an elevator in Tokyo Skytree.
- People were stuck in the elevator for more than five hours without injury.
- The rescuers moved the passengers using a bridge to a neighboring elevator.
- Around 1,200 people were temporarily stuck on the observation deck due to a malfunction of the elevators.
- The cause of the elevators’ technical problems is currently being investigated.
Tokyo police said that two elevators to the observation deck, located at a height of 350 meters, stopped suddenly on the way down on Sunday shortly before 8:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. CET). One of them was empty, but the other with 20 people remained standing about 30 meters above the ground.
Police officers and other persons contacted the people in the cabin by telephone and they were looking for ways to evacuate them. Rescuers from the fire department eventually helped people move to a neighboring elevator, which was lowered to the same height and his emergency door was open. Between the elevators, a little more than a meter apart, a metal bridge with a railing was installed.
The rescue operation ended on Monday around 2:00 a.m. local time. Approximately 1,200 people were temporarily stuck on the observation deck due to a malfunction of the elevators. They all managed to get down by another elevator by 11:00 p.m. local time. The cause of the technical problems is being investigated.
The Skytree tower was opened in 2012 and is among the most popular tourist attractions in the Japanese capital. It is the third tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur.
