An elderly man was injured after his foot became trapped in an escalator at Johor Bahru Sentral (JB Sentral) on Sept 11, with the escalator reportedly continuing to operate as commuters descended.
The incident happened near the exit of an escalator used by passengers arriving from Singapore, close to the Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex.
A 42-second video of the incident later went viral on social media, showing the elderly man lying at the bottom of the escalator with his foot trapped in the exit plate.
A woman was seen quickly moving luggage away from the escalator as other passengers continued arriving. A man in a blue shirt also stopped to support the elderly man’s head, while a female checkpoint officer assessed the situation and called for medical assistance.
Despite the incident, the escalator did not immediately stop, with commuters continuing to descend towards the injured man.
The incident has renewed concerns over the condition of facilities at the JB Sentral and CIQ complex, which form part of the Southern Integrated Gateway, a major transport and border hub connecting Malaysia and Singapore.
The complex has faced similar infrastructure problems in the past. In 2014, a four-year-old boy’s foot became trapped in the side panel of a JB Sentral escalator, requiring an emergency team to free him.
More recently, passengers were reportedly trapped inside a lift at the Johor Immigration Centre in July 2025 after it malfunctioned. Members of the public eventually forced the doors open manually as no technician was available at the scene.
Regular commuters have also raised concerns over frequently malfunctioning lifts at JB Sentral, leaving elderly passengers, families with young children and travellers carrying heavy luggage reliant on escalators.
In April 2022, the Johor state government formed a task force following congestion at the JB Sentral-Bukit Chagar Integrated Station (BSI) pedestrian bridge, with escalator repair works contributing to the problem.
The issue had also drawn attention from then prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who made an unannounced visit to the Sultan Iskandar CIQ Complex in June 2022 and instructed management to resolve problems involving broken escalators and autogates.
In October 2025, the Federal Finance Ministry announced an allocation under Budget 2026 to comprehensively replace the lifts and escalators at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar and JB Sentral.
The latest incident has once again highlighted concerns over the reliability and safety of escalators and other facilities used daily by large numbers of commuters at the transport and border hub.
