WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS IMAGES WHICH SOME MAY FIND DISTURBING.
The CCTV footage of the incident shows a mother and her young child travelling up an escalator in a Chinese shopping mall.
As the duo reach the top, the mother lifts her child up into her arms to get ready to step off.
However a metal panel that wasn’t properly secured at the top of the escalator gave way as they walked across it.
Xiang Liujuan, 31, fell into the gap - but, as she struggled, she threw her little boy to safety.
As her son is grabbed by a shopping centre employee and dragged away from the scene, Xiang is seen disappearing into the escalator shaft.
According to CNN, Xiang was found dead when they were finally able to cut the escalator open.
Officials in Jingzhou, a city of more than 5 million residents in Hubei province, blamed human error for the tragedy at a news conference Monday night.
Chen Guanxin told CNN: “Mall employees found the collapsed panel to be loose and protruding five minutes before the incident but failed to stop the escalator for inspection and repair.”
"The shopping mall is still open and the killer escalators are still running," a woman who identified herself as the victim's sister-in-law told Hong Kong Free Press.
"Shoppers have no idea about the tragedy upstairs and no one knows if such disasters will strike again."
An investigation into the accident is currently underway.