BONN, West Germany -- Some 30 people fell to their deaths or were trampled underfoot in an escalator accident at a Moscow subway station, the newspaper Bild Zeitung said today.
The newspaper, in a report attributed to authoritative Soviet journalist Viktor Louis, said the accident occured Wednesday at the Aviamotornaya station on the Kalinins line in east Mosocw.
A story on the accident was printed Thursday in the Moscow newspaper Evening Moscow, but it gave no details except to say 'there were casualties among the passengers.'
Bild Zeitung said about 30 passengers fell some 90 feet when an escalator broke down at the station. It said some passengers were killed by the fall and others were trampled to death when panic broke out on another escalator.
The accident was caused by a loosening of the chain and cogwheels at the top of a 180-foot escalator, the newspaper said. It said people were thrown into a shaft under the escalator and some were crushed by the escalator's machinery.
The escalator could not be stopped because the workers responsible for its operation were absent, the Bild report said.
The Soviet press generally gives minimal coverage to such accidents.
In June 1981 another Moscow newspaper said there had been a fire in Oktyabrskaya station but claimed there wer no injuries.
Witnesses said at that time they saw seven bodies being carried out on stretchers.
