An elevator technician’s arm was severed at the elbow as he worked on a lift inside a lower Manhattan office building Thursday — and witnesses described hearing his bloodcurdling screams for help following the accident.
“There were people working on the elevator, and we heard a loud crash and someone screaming,” said an employee at the building who declined to be named.
“It sounded like someone was really in distress,” she said. “We heard, ‘Help! Help!’ He was wailing. He sounded desperate.”
The unidentified Brooklyn resident had been on a job at 50 Broadway, a 37-story office building in the heart of the Financial District, when the accident occurred around 10:30 a.m., according to police.
Fire officials and witnesses told The Post the man was working for a private company called Centennial Elevator Industries, which describes itself online as “one of New York City’s premier vertical transportation specialists.”
Firefighters could be seen rushing in buckets of ice in an attempt to preserve his arm, which was cut off at the elbow by the elevator, according to officials.
The man also suffered an unspecified injury to his leg and was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in serious condition, police said.
EMTs were spotted entering the medical facility behind him around 11:15 a.m. with a large, black garbage can — likely containing his severed limb.
“You could see a bandage on his arm. It was about up to his elbow,” a witness said.
A visitor wearing a Centennial Elevator Industries shirt who refused to be named told The Post on Thursday afternoon that doctors had been working for hours to reattach the man’s arm. “He’s
fine,” the visitor said. “He’s in surgery.”
Two students enrolled in the Yes Program, a GED class on the eighth floor, said the elevator had only recently been installed in the building.
“The elevator was only put in about a month ago,” said 18-year-old Ricky Tostado.
Additional reporting by Sarah Trefethen and Matthew Allan