Man swallowed up by malfunctioning escalator

ISTANBUL, TURKEY — A Turkish man is lucky to still be alive after he was swallowed up whole by a hungry subway station escalator.

The insane incident was captured on video at the Ayazaga Metro station in Istanbul on Feb. 27 at 5:30 p.m., according to the Mirror.

The footage starts with busy commuters walking down an escalator that was not moving.

But when Mehmet Ali Erik stepped on, the escalator suddenly came to life and started moving, that's when a section collapsed, opening up a large hole.

Erik fell in the gap and can be seen disappearing from the CCTV view.
The man was reportedly trapped under there for an hour, before firefighters were able to rescue him and transport him to the hospital for unspecified injuries.

According to local news, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality had put a warning sign by the broken escalator.