An escalator crushed a boy's foot in a terrifying accident at a shopping mall in Thailand.

The excited youngster, 12, was bounding up the moving stairs towards a toy shop when he stumbled while stepping off the platform on June 15.

The mechanism sucked in his right foot and he screamed in agony as it mangled his toes in the metal comb plate.

Paramedics were called to the Sahathai Plaza shopping mall in Nakhon Si Thammarat when mall staff found the boy sitting on the escalator and sobbing from pain.

Footage shows rescue officers dismantling part of the escalator to free his crushed foot. They lifted the trapped youngster and gave him first aid before rushing him to the Nakharin Hospital.

A mall employee said: 'The injured boy had just stopped by to visit his mother, who works at the mall. While riding the escalator up to see her on the fourth floor, he tripped and the tip of his right foot got caught in the escalator.'

Staff said the boy was spared further injury as the escalator had a safety system that automatically shut it down upon detecting an obstruction.

The boy had also been wearing sneakers that kept the machine from fully cutting off his toes, they added.

Doctors said they will assess the extent of his injuries before proceeding with treatment.