Terrifying information reveals the place in England you are most probably to get caught in a elevate

Getting stuck in a lift is the nightmare scenario we’re all desperate to avoid.

But, for those petrified by that claustrophobic prospect, MailOnline can today reveal where it’s most likely to happen.

For 2023 alone, the equivalent one in 1,500 people in London got trapped in lifts and needed rescuing by fire crews. 

Firefighters were called to release people trapped in elevators 12,500 times in 2023 across England as a whole.

This figure, collated by the Home Office annually, may reflect groups being trapped, not just individuals.

Statisticians compared the data – which also track road traffic collisions and suicide attempts – against population figures for the dozens of fire services across England, calculating a rate of lift entrapments per 100,000 people.

Nearly half of all calls made from April 2023 to March 2024 to free people trapped in lifts were made to the London Fire Brigade.

This equated to a rate of 69 times per 100,000 people – more than triple the average for England as a whole.

A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: ‘False alarms and lift calls take up valuable time and resources, that’s why repeat offenders may be fined.

‘We’re not required to attend incidents where a person is shut in a lift without immediate physical or medical danger.

‘We should only be called in an emergency.

‘Building or lift owners must maintain lifts and provide a 24/7 lift release service with, as well as communications facilities inside the elevator so a person can raise the alarm.’

On average, response times for 999 teams to the reach the scene exceed 9 minutes.

Crews then spend another 27 minutes working to free the trapped people, meaning victims are typically left stranded for more than 36 minutes.

Behind London, East Sussex is ranked second, with a lift release callout rate of 41 per 100,000, over a total of 344 incidents.

The South East and South Central regions of England and Wales see by far the highest number of lift releases 

West Sussex is in third with a rate of 26.5 per 100,000 population – for a total of 239 callouts.

In the Isles of Scilly, meanwhile, firefighters did not have to rescue a single person stuck in a lift.

Just 17 rescues were made for a rate of 2 per 100,000 population in Suffolk.

Cambridgeshire also has a very low rate, with just 3 lift rescues per 100,000 population. There were just 29 callouts to Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue in 2023/24.