Stuck in lift, four girls endure 30 mins of terror in Park Sreet building

KOLKATA: Four students of an MBA coaching institute on Park Street endured a 30-minute nightmare on Sunday morning after being stuck in one of the building’s elevator that came to a halt between the first and ground floors even as the girls’ cellphones went out of coverage and the emergency button of the lift failed as well, leaving them with no option except shouting for help.
Two of the youngsters fell ill even as the others kept banging on the doors and screaming for help. However, no one came to their help for a long time Eventually, one of the girls managed to call her uncle, who had come to the building to take her. Later, all of

them were rescued unharmed by the building staff, who got the lift running within a few minutes of being alerted. The Park Street police have started an investigation into the incident.
Sayanka Mukherjee, Pracheta Roychoudhury, Payel Saha and Akansha attended an MBA coaching class on the third floor of building at 24B, Park Street — that also houses several offices and a restaurant — and walked into the elevator at 12.30pm. Within a few seconds, it stopped with a jolt leaving the youngsters — aged between 19 and 21— trapped.
Each of them tried calling the institute but their phones didn’t have network in the sealed chamber. Being a Sunday, most offices in the building were shut and the security staff were not around.
“We repeatedly banged the door and kept screaming in the hope that someone would hear us and help. But several minutes passed even as we kept pressing the emergency button and kept trying to call the institute. Neither the button worked nor did our phones. After about 20 minutes, we were exhausted and started panicking since it was a nonworking day and few people who were still around would be leaving soon,” said Sayanka, a BTech student from Burdwan.
The stuffy elevator even caused Sayanka to feel dizzy and collapse. Payel, too, felt ill. Akansha got the network back on her phone just then for a few minutes and she managed to call the police. But the connection was feeble and the policeman couldn’t hear her clearly.
“He kept asking for our location, but couldn’t hear me. The line got disconnected after a few seconds,” said Akansha.
As minutes passed, the youngsters realized they were running out of time. All four now decided to make a last desperate attempt to seek help. They dialed different people hoping to get through at least once. After about 10 minutes, Sayanka got through to her uncle Debabrata Mukherjee, who had reached the building. “I had called my aunt in the morning and knew that my uncle would be reaching to fetch me. I was supposed to spend the afternoon with them at their Hastings residence before catching a train back to Burdwan. Had I not been able to get through to my uncle, all of us would have suffocated to death,” said Sayanka.
She rushed to the thirdfloor institute and informed the authorities. The building staffers were alerted and a liftman managed to get the elevator running by switching off the power and then turning it on.
“We had no idea that the girls were trapped in the elevator till Debabrata came and sought help. Being a Sunday, there were fewer building staffers. While this is unfortunate, nothing like this has ever happened in the building and we hope it will never be repeated,” said Sambaran Pal, a student counsellor at the institute.
According to the building staff, the lift had a CCTV camera inside the chamber, but there was no one to monitor the feed.
Soon after the girls were rescued, cops from Park Street and Shakespeare Sarani police stations reached the institute. They spoke to officials about the security arrangements inside the building and started an investigation.