A woman was strangled after her scarf and then her hair became caught in the mechanism of a Montreal tube station escalator as it rolled towards the platform during the morning rush hour.

Bob Lamle of Montreal's ambulance service said people who saw the incident made frantic efforts to free her but were unable to halt the tragedy. He said he had never seen anything like it in his 30-year career.

Emergency crews found the 48-year-old woman lying on her back trapped at the bottom of the escalator. A doctor declared her dead at the scene.

The accident happened at around 9.15am local time. Montreal police spokesman Jean-Pierre Brabant said the woman tried to pull on the scarf to release it and her hair also got stuck.

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