A boy runs on an escalator in a Shanghai shopping mall followed by two adults. Photo: IC

It's the rise of the machines! For fans of science fiction films such as The Terminator and Maximum Overdrive who have long predicted an apocalypse where mankind is destroyed by the very machines we created, a recent spate of gruesome incidents in China involving people-eating escalators might seem like the first wave of automated attacks.

Two weeks ago at a shopping mall in Hubei Province, a woman was literally swallowed up and killed by an escalator just moments after pushing her toddler son to safety. The very next day, a one-year-old child had his left arm ripped off by an escalator at a mall in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. A few days after that, a cleaner's leg was amputated by the teeth-like steps of an escalator in Shanghai.

Based on these unfortunate incidences, one might believe that escalators are an entirely new concept in China. Like the shopping mall zombies in the 1978 horror classic Dawn of the Dead who get tossed this way and that on the moving escalators, it's easy to picture zombie-like shoppers at Chinese malls also tripping all over each other upon stepping onto their very first escalator.

But the ironic fact is that China ranks first in the world in the operation and production of elevators and escalators, with an annual growth of 20 percent. In 2014, China had 3.6 million elevators and escalators carrying 200 million people daily, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the country's quality control watchdog.

Nonetheless, there were 49 elevator and escalator accidents in China last year, causing 37 deaths. One high-profile accident occurred at the Jing'an Temple metro station in Shanghai, when an escalator suddenly reversed its direction, injuring 13 people. Two months later, a baby stroller got caught in the comb plates of an escalator at Shanghai's People's Square metro station, causing 10 injuries. In the first quarter of 2015, over 120 accidents on escalators in Shanghai were reported.

Shanghai has over 15,400 escalators and more than 180,000 elevators in use at present, more than any other city in the world, but the number of designated maintenance workers is only around 5,000, with 50 escalators assigned per worker - 30 more than what is accepted in the industry. Ninety faulty escalators manufactured by Suzhou Shenlong Elevator Co Ltd, the maker of the lethal escalator in Hubei, were later identified and shut down in numerous districts throughout Shanghai, the city's Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau announced at a press conference following extensive media coverage of the Hubei incident.

Despite the best efforts of authorities to ensure the public's safety, people are still feeling uneasy about riding escalators. The Global Times spent a recent weekend surveying foreign passengers at People's Square in Shanghai about their views on the rising incidences of escalator accidents and what passengers can do to better protect themselves from being eaten alive by this dangerous machinery.

Kaho, student, Japan

Kaho, student, Japan

I used to think only lifts would kill people. Now it seems that escalators aren't safe either. Every time I see that panel at the top of an escalator, I'm reminded of that unfortunate mother. I am a little afraid of that panel now, so recently I'll jump across it when I get to the top.

Rebecca, tourist, Canada

Rebecca, tourist, Canada

To take an escalator should be a safe thing to do. When it's crowded, though, it's really quite dangerous, because everybody pushes each other.

Edmond

Edmond

For me, escalators in Shanghai are as safe or unsafe as anywhere in the world. In Hubei's case it was about the lack of maintenance. I think it was a human problem; somebody made a mistake.

Tifenn, travel agent, France

I think the situation is better than my country. In France, escalators are always out of service. It takes a long time to repair them. Here in Shanghai, everything gets fixed fast. The fact is that escalator accidents don't happen all the time.

Sami, student, the US

Sami, student, the US

Oh, it depends, because this is just one incident, and I've never heard of any other escalator incidents happening in the Shanghai area or any other places. Maybe it's just one escalator accident.

Skylar, student , the US

Skylar, student , the US

The news scares me because I ride escalators all the time. Yesterday a little boy was trying to go up and down an escalator with a skateboard, so I picked him up and moved him because I was nervous for him. I haven't had any problems but you never know.

Tom, editor, the US

The problem is that there is no escalator etiquette in China. People just trample each other getting on and off. Nobody stands to the right to let hurried people pass. And once they get to the top of an escalator, many people just stand there looking around or playing on their damn phones, oblivious of all the passengers behind them. This could be solved if instructions for the ignorant were painted directly on escalator steps, like in Hong Kong.

Global Times - Wang Beibei and Xue Jing contributed to this story