Shoppers inside the Atlantic Terminal mall in Brooklyn tumbled down an escalator when one rider fell and took down other people nearby, fire officials say.
The FDNY says EMS reponded to the accident at the mall on Atlantic Avenue in Fort Greene at about 6 p.m.
It appears a shopper fell on an escalator leading to the Target store inside the mall and caused other customers to also fall down, officials said.
"We just heard a whole bunch of screams, and then we heard a whole bunch of what sounds like bodies just dropping," said Chenel Livingston of Brooklyn. "I thought honestly the whole escalator had collapsed, but apparently I think they said a bunch of people just fell down the escalator."
"The escalator malfunctioned like if you had a roll of toilet paper and you yank it -- that's how the escalator yanked people, catapulting them right on top of each other," said another Brooklyn shopper named Denise. "Everybody ended up in a heap on the floor."
A neighbor shopping at the time said a store worker told her that someone tripped on the escalator, "which caused about 40 people to all collapse on the escalator and they were laying on the escalator for quite a bit."
"It was just a lot of chaos -- people hurt, screaming," said the woman named Marsha, who witnessed the aftermath. "I felt really bad for them because it's the holiday season, everybody's shopping and they're in a rush, and that's just not something that you didn't want to see."
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Two people were taken to Lutheran Hospital and are listed in serious but stable condition. Five others were taken to Long Island College Hospital with minor injuries, including scratches and bruises.
A message left with mall officials was not returned Tuesday night.
