A mother whose leg was amputated by a faulty airport travelator has taken her first steps again - as police slammed the building's owners for refusing to hand over CCTV of the accident.

The mother, 57, walked with the help of two physiotherapists and a frame at the hospital today where she is being treated following the horror injury at the Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, on June 29.

Her son Kittirat said she complains 'it's like being a child learning to walk again' and has vowed to sue the airport over the allegedly badly maintained travelator.

He added: 'My mum walked for 15 minutes and must practice every day. It's very encouraging. She's still as beautiful as ever despite everything that has happened. I hope that soon she'll be running faster than me.'

Airport bosses have admitted that the automatic walkway used by tens of thousands of people every day was to blame as three bolts holding the metal surface plate the woman was standing on suddenly gave way. The woman's left leg then plunged through the surface and she was sucked into the machinery.

University Professor Weerachai Phutthawong, an academic brought in to investigate the accident, explained the accident using pictures of the broken machinery.

He said: 'The cause of the accident was the surface plate of the walkway falling out of the square rail because three of the four bolts, which are the bolts at A, B, C seen in the picture, were not able to support the plate.

'While rolling down at the end of the slideway, only the bolt in position D stayed in place. The passenger's leg then fell through the gap.

'During the 10 seconds that the travelator continued to push forward, the passenger's leg that had dropped to the E position was pushed forward against a metal edge, causing serious injury.'

The breakthrough came as police have slammed owners Airports of Thailand (AoT) - the world's most valuable airport operator with close links to the Thai king - for not handing officers surveillance footage of the accident.

Police Colonel Adirek Thongkaemkaew, chief of the city's Don Muang district police, said this week that airport management had been asked to provide the camera footage soon after the accident last Thursday, but investigators had so far not received the evidence.

The officer said that investigators are still collecting witness accounts and other evidence following the injury close to the departure gate.

He added: 'The airport has been co-operative in previous cases. We will continue to repeat the requests for the CCTV.'

The accident happened when the passenger was walking to the gate for a flight to Nakhon Si Thammarat province. She fell into the machinery at around 8:30 am, with witnesses saying she was tangled in her pink suitcase, which was also damaged.

The force of her fall caused her leg to plunge through the end of the walkway. She screamed in horror as her foot became stuck in the metal gap while the machinery churned through her muscle, tendons and bones.

Onlookers fumbled to turn off the emergency switch as the machine continued tearing through her flesh - spewing blood onto the metal tracks.

Paramedics amputated her leg on-site at the airport in order to free her from the travelator before she was carried out on a stretcher - with her foot in a foam box loaded into the ambulance.

Following the accident, staff at the Don Mueang International Airport - which has a separate military terminal on the opposite side which is used by the country's King - closed all of 20 their automatic walkways.

The other airports around the country also began frantically checking their devices amid fears of further accidents.

Karan Tanakuljirapat, director of the Don Mueang Airport, said the airport's walkways had been installed by Japanese company Hitachi Co in 1996 and were maintained by its local subsidiary. He claimed the walkways were maintained regularly, and they were scheduled to be replaced with newer models in 2025.

In a statement, the Don Mueang Airport said: 'The director of Don Mueang Airport and management has visited the patient to follow up on the treatment and received information from the medical team at Bhumibol Hospital that she is currently in the process of receiving treatment from the medical team.

'Don Mueang Airport is deeply saddened by the incident and ready to fully accept the responsibility as well as take care of the medical expenses and compensation.'

Don Mueang International Airport (DMK) serving Bangkok opened in 1914 but was replaced as the country's main airport in 2014 by the new Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK) on the outskirts of the city.

State-owned Airports of Thailand (AOT) runs the facility and the company is reportedly 'the most-valuable airport operator in the world' due to the country's popularity as a tourism destination and its rapidly growing domestic economy.

However, walking around the airport's arrivals and departure areas, the building appears to be stuck in a 1970s time warp, with little reinvestment, renovation, or upgrades - despite receiving vast sums each year from fees charged to airlines and tourism receipts.

A similar incident happened in 2019 when a passenger's rubber Crocs were sucked into a travelator at the same airport. The victim said that if he did not take off his shoe in time, his foot would have been sliced off.

A number of other people came forward following the latest accident with similar complaints about the 'death trap travelators'.