'It was bleeding quite badly': Bird stuck in escalator at Orchard mall brings woman to tears

A bird found trapped in an escalator brought a woman to tears on Sunday (Aug 7), after she and a friend chanced upon the distressed animal wedged between the steps.

A video of the incident was posted to TikTok on Tuesday (Aug 9).

"So we heard a bird screaming in pain and found that it was stuck in the escalator", wrote the TikTok user by the username of Douglas Ong.

Ong told AsiaOne that he and his friend, Madihah, had come across the bird while going up the escalator to Ritual Gym located at 270 Orchard Road near Somerset MRT station.

"When we reached the top of the escalator, we saw the bird flapping non-stop and the legs were stuck in the moving escalator," said Ong, adding that they panicked and immediately pressed the escalator's emergency stop button.

According to Ong, the bird was "bleeding quite badly" and its beak was also damaged.

"We tried to get the legs out but we only managed to get one leg out as the other leg was stuck deep in the escalator," said Ong, 27, a software engineer and content creator.

@douglasokj If you come across any animal that needs rescue, you know what to do now #saveanimals #birdsoftiktok #douglasong ♬ original sound - Douglas Ong

He shared that Madihah, the woman in the video, was particularly affected by the bird's predicament and was "trembling and feeling a lot of anxiety".

In the short clip, the emotionally-distraught woman could be heard crying loudly as she knelt beside the bird and tried in vain to free its leg from the escalator.

Drops of blood could also be seen on her hand as she held the bird to comfort it.

"I cannot [inaudible]," wailed Madihah in helplessness, to which Ong replied, "Never mind, let go, let go".

Ong added in the video that they called the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) and they responded quickly and arrived within 30 minutes.

Several commenters in the video shared that they would have cried too if they'd chanced upon the situation and thanked the woman for "not turning a blind eye".

Acres' deputy chief executive officer, Kalai Vanan Balakrishnan, confirmed that they received a call for help to extricate the bird, a young Asian glossy starling.

He told AsiaOne that the bird had "sustained horrific injuries" including a broken beak and legs, calling the incident a rare freak accident. 

Unfortunately, while Ong shared in the video that the bird was rescued alive, Kalai said that it died shortly after. "If it hadn't, it would have been a euthanasia case," he added.

Members of the public who spot a wild animal that is injured or in distress are advised to the Acres wildlife rescue hotline at 97837782, said Kalai.

Last month, a large-tailed nightjar was found trapped in Peninsula Plaza.

The animal had apparently found itself stranded in the mall overnight, with no viable escape route.

Escalators can prove injurious to larger animals too, such as this dog who was left bleeding after getting stuck in an escalator at Vivocity.

candicecai@asiaone.com