Three-year-old girl fighting for life after falling two floors from Primark escalator

The toddler is thought to have fallen over the side as it travelled up to the third floor of a Primark store in Liverpool city centre.

The youngster was described as "stable but poorly" after previously being "critical" following the fall at Primark in Liverpool.

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She was initially treated at the Royal Liverpool Hospital before she was transferred to intensive care at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

A Merseyside Police spokeswoman said: "The girl's condition has now been downgraded from critical to stable but poorly.

"She suffered a broken left leg and left arm which have both been recast and she also received internal injuries."

The girl toppled backwards through the gap between the upward and downward escalators, on to the lower ground floor, at lunch time yesterday.

Police and paramedics were on the scene within minutes. But the girl's mother was inconsolable, shoppers said.

Her daughter, who is believed to have several broken bones and some internal injuries, was taken unconscious to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

There, doctors were put on alert to receive the girl, who remained in a critical condition last night.

Paul Donnelly, 15, who saw the accident, said: "At first I thought it was just a bag that had been dropped but then I realised it was a child. I saw her hit the floor.

"People were rushing over and the security guards came and pushed people back. There was a lot of panic and raised voices. Everyone was asking if she was okay.

"I had to leave the store because I felt that I was going to faint.

"It looked like a very bad accident. We were just hoping and praying that somehow she would be okay."

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Lyndsey Wilcox, a 30-year-old student, said: "I heard an almighty scream and as I looked over I saw the body of a young girl lying on the basement floor. She was not moving.

"People came rushing and started clambering over one another to see what had happened. I felt physically sick.

"Others were oblivious to what was happening and carried on shopping. Then the mother arrived. She was screaming and shouting in her grief.

"She was uncontrollable, screaming and wailing, and people were trying to console her. I can't understand how the girl could have fallen."

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The Primark store in Liverpool - at 84,000 sq ft, one of the biggest in the UK - opened in September. A spokesman for the chain, which is renowned for its budget fashion clothing, said: "We are obviously profoundly shocked and saddened to learn of the accident in our Liverpool store this afternoon.

"We are doing all we can to assist the authorities in their investigation. All our thoughts are with the little girl and her family."

The store was evacuated and closed for police and health and safety examinations.