A postwoman has been found dead after being stuck in a lift for three days with no one coming to rescue her.
Olga Leontyeva, 32, was delivering mail on her rounds in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, on Monday, July 24.
She was seen in CCTV footage stepping into the lift on the ground floor of the nine-story flat block. She was not seen afterwards.
The mother-of-one was then reported missing on July 26 by her worried relatives, and her body was found the next day in the elevator, which is thought to have stopped working due to a power cut.
A source claimed that ‘no-one heard her shouts for help’ and the lift’s alarm did not sound.
According to reports the lift had been suffering regular technical problems, and had not been properly registered. Breakdowns were also ‘common’, according to Tashkent General Prosecutor’s Office.
Ms. Leontyeva married in 2018 but later divorced. She tragically has left behind her six-year-old daughter who is now being cared for by relatives.
State investigators are examining the incident and a criminal case has been launched, said the prosecutor’s office.
An earlier check on the Chinese-manufactured lift had found it to be in working order, said a report, yet it had not been registered according to government regulations.
The power supplier denied there had been an electricity cut.
Fakhriddin Nuraliyev, the spokesman for the Regional Electricity Networks enterprise, told Gazeta.uz that there were no power cuts in the apartment building on the days in question.
‘This is evidenced by the records of emergency shutdowns.
‘The cause of the incident was the malfunction of the lift. This was confirmed by the residents as well,’ he said.
