A 25 year old woman has been crushed to death in an elevator at the Hospital Universitario de Valme de Sevilla.

Rocío Cortés Núñez, a mother-of-three, had just given birth by caesarean section and was being transferred on a stretcher from the second floor to the third floor.

The door lock control device of the lift apparently failed as the woman was being pushed inside. The lift began to move upwards with the stretcher only half inside the lift.

Firefighters were quickly on the scene to free the body of the woman from the elevator but doctors at the hospital were unable to save the life of the woman.

The father of the woman, Juan Manuel Cortés, had travelled from Malaga by train to visit his daughter and the new born baby but was unable to enter the hospital before being informed of the tragic accident.

“They have killed my beautiful girl. We came [to the hospital] for happiness and they have taken a life,” he said.

The Junta de Andalucia released a statement saying that the lift was recently inspected on August 12 by the company responsible for the maintenance of the elevator.