TWO staff have been suspended after a disabled woman and her daughter were trapped in the pitch black during a 90 minute ordeal in Stretford Mall.

Michelle Farrell, of Higher Road, Urmston, had been out last Wednesday with her mother Julie, who uses a wheelchair because she suffers with chronic respiratory difficulties, had been shopping at the mall last Wednesday evening.

After returning to their car, which was parked in a disabled bay on the second floor of the multi-storey car park, that they discovered they had been locked in.

Hairdresser Ms Farrell said: "We discovered they had locked us in only after driving to the first floor of the multi-storey car park, which was completely shuttered.

"We had come up directly to the car park after the shops closed at 6pm, and as I knew there were staff in the mall, I initially thought it would be okay. However when I tried to use the lift to go back down it had been switched off and when I used the stairs they were shutted at the bottom, so I couldn't get into the mall."

Ms Farrell after returning to her distressed mother she then tried to call the mall on her mobile but nobody answered the pair's cries for help.

Their ordeal was made worse, after Ms Farell's mother who is oxygen dependent, started to panic, and after the car park was plunged into darkness.

"When the lights went out my mother was crying and I was trying to calm her down because you couldn't see your hand in front of your face and I had no other option but to ring 999.

"The police also tried to raise the keyholder, but it kept going to an answering machine, and at one point they were going to call the fire brigade out because my mother's oxygen tank had run out."

Despite police informing Ms Farrell at 6.45pm that the keyholder had been found, she said it was another 45 minutes before two men came to open the car park and let them out.

She added: "My mother is still having nightmares about the whole incident and if it had been a disabled person by themselves and without a mobile phone, it could well have resulted in somebody dying in there."

A spokesman for the Stretford Mall said: “We wish to apologise to Michelle and her mother for this unfortunate incident which must have been very unpleasant for them.

“We are investigating what went wrong and will be reviewing security procedures to ensure this cannot happen again.

“The security contractor has suspended two members of staff pending this investigation.”