AN angry mum is threatening to sue the owners of Blackburn shopping centre after she became stuck in a lift for half an hour.

Patricia Hepple, 28, and her three-year-old daughter Chloe, together with her friend Nichola Dean, 19, and her 13-month-old son James, were all in the lift near C&A when it stuck between floors.

Miss Hepple, from Blackburn, rang the alarm bell but claimed she was rescued only when a passer-by heard her knocking on the lift door and shouting.

She said: "I pressed the alarm button but nobody came. I started kicking the lift door and luckily someone heard us.

"It was half an hour before we got out and my little daughter was frantic. We've not had an apology or anything."

The woman who alerted the shopping centre security staff, Jackie Tipping, 34, from Darwen, added: "I think it's disgusting. An old person stuck in there could have had a heart attack."

Miss Hepple criticised the response time of shopping centre staff and claimed they had not done much to reassure her throughout the ordeal.

I've also been told there have been lots of problems with that lift," she added.

Shopping centre manager Allan Caster said he could not make any detailed comment because of the threat of legal action.

However, he denied that there had been numerous problems with the lift.

"We are looking at ways and means to improve communications between the lift and the control room.

"I would also repudiate any suggestion that these people were treated with any form of disrespect."

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