CHENNAI: A 70-year-old woman employee of a popular biryani outlet near GST Road in Pallavaram died after the cable of a lift at the hotel snapped and fell on the ground on Tuesday morning.
The deceased was identified as Mumtaz (70), who was working at the Yaa Moideen biryani outlet in Pallavaram. The police said Mumtaz arrived at the shop for work as usual at around 10 am. The building has a ground floor and two upper floors. She was going in the lift from the ground floor to one of the upper floors when the inner cable of the lift suddenly snapped. The lift plunged, trapping Mumtaz inside. She suffered severe injuries and died on the spot.
Following the incident, other employees rushed to the spot and attempted to rescue her, and also alerted the Pallavaram police. A police team arrived at the spot and found Mumtaz dead inside the lift. The body was retrieved and sent to the Tambaram district government hospital for post-mortem examination.
The Pallavaram police have registered a case and are investigating the incident. The police are questioning the owners of the biryani outlet as well as the lift maintenance team to ascertain the exact cause of the accident and whether there were any lapses in its maintenance.