A six-year-old narrowly escaped losing her toes last week when her shoe became trapped in an escalator in the Bentall Centre.

Georgia Bole was on the ground floor escalator going up to the shopping centre creche with her father Dave on Saturday afternoon when her shoe became wedged down the side of the escalator.

She began screaming and her dad had to forcefully pull her leg free, ripping the end of her shoe in the process.

According to her mother, Sharon, Georgia has lost the tip of a toenail and badly bruised her foot.

Mrs Bole said: "She could so easily have lost her foot. The physical damage could have been a lot worse but she has been badly psychologically traumatised. I don't think she'll ever go on an escalator again."

Mrs Bole believes the Bentall Centre does not have sufficient safety notices warning visitors with children to take care on the escalators.

"The Bentall Centre has a duty of care to children. There are only small blue stickers at the entrance to an escalator which children won't understand.

"It's hard to watch over a child every minute so they should be able to understand the signs themselves," she said.

However, Heather Joy, marketing and PR manager for the Bentall Centre, who attended the scene of the accident, said: "We are not concerned about the safety of our escalators. The girl had clearly been running her foot under the brushes that run along the side of the escalator and the the tip of her shoe got caught.

"There's clear signage on every escalator without fail, top and bottom, that states you shouldn't place your feet near the edges."

Following the accident, health and safety officers from Kingston Council visited the Bentall centre to examine the escalators.

A spokesman for the Environmental Health department of the council said: "Within two hours of receiving the complaint, the borough environmental health officer made a site visit to the escalator.

"During the visit the management at the centre were interviewed and the escalator was stopped and examined.

"It was noted that the escalators had the prescribed warning signs on proper use and the conclusion was there was nothing that warranted immediate action by the council to prevent the continued use of the escalator."

Mrs Bole said: "We just want to make this accident public to warn others of the possible danger of children on escalators."