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Man stuck in an elevator for four days without food or water

Lift / elevator (generic)

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A man has spoken about how he became stuck in an elevator for four days.

Hotel manager Thomas Fleetwood had to survive without food or water in the one-man lift, and was only able to do so due to his military training.

Fleetwood had also forgotten his mobile phone before entering the elevator in the empty Hotel Eden in Austria.

The 58-year-old said: "The lift has never broken down before, I just hadn't expected anything to happen.

"I broke a small glass panel at the front door of the lift and that gave me some fresh air, and tried to take off the roof of the lift to climb out, but that didn't help either."

The Swedish hotel owner eventually escaped when a friend noticed several letters building up outside the hotel, before letting himself in with a spare key.

The friend soon contacted the fire service when he realized that Fleetwood was trapped inside the lift.

Fleetwood added: "It was foolish to have gone in the lift in an empty hotel without a mobile telephone, but I am proud of myself that I didn't panic and used my military training to get through.

"I would talk to myself and was making my plans for the future while I was stuck there."

In 1999, a man named Nicholas White was filmed while he was trapped inside an elevator for 41 hours.

Watch a short film of the incident below:

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