A 4-year-old Japanese girl who was wearing Crocs Inc. rubber shoes lost her toe in an escalator at a Singapore shopping mall last month, her father said Tuesday.
The father, a 35-year-old investment manager who asked not to be identified, is seeking compensation for the injuries suffered by his daughter.
The incident is the latest in a series of mishaps on escalators involving children wearing the popular rubber shoes.
The incident occurred Sept. 20 in a three-story shopping center in central Singapore as the child was riding an escalator between the second and third floors, with her mother in front and her father behind.
While turning back to speak to her father, her shoe got caught in the thin gap between the steps. The father tried to pick her up, but her toe got torn off by the escalator.
Although the toe was retrieved about an hour later, it was too badly damaged for doctors to reattach it to her foot.
Her shoe was badly mangled by the escalator.
There was a similar accident in the building about a year ago, although not on the same escalator. That incident did not result in serious injury, according to an executive of the building's maintenance company, UOL Management Services.
"Other malls also have this kind of case, especially with kids wearing such shoes because of the tendency of the shoes to be very soft," he said.
The girl's parents were upset that representatives of the store or the building did not contact them to offer assistance or apologize until a couple of days after the accident.