Five freshers got stuck in the Tower lift for an hour and a half so they hotboxed it

Getting stuck in the lift is every Tower dweller’s worst nightmare.

So imagine the horror when these five helpless freshers were left trapped in the lift for an hour and a half.

The three girls and two boys inside weighed less than the 600kg weight restriction, but the doors jammed at 30cm as they tried to get out on the sixth floor.

The group, who started the evening as strangers, killed time by eating smarties and smoking a spliff until they were rescued by an engineer.

Might as well

Jess, who lives on floor nine, spoke to us about the horrifying ordeal.

She said: “In the lift was me, two of the girls who I live with on floor nine and two boys from five.”

“We were all panicking. The lift is tiny and stuffy and we all needed to pee.”

“I won’t be getting the lift for the next few days and if I do want the lift, I won’t be going in it alone.”

The Tower’s lift, notorious for smelling bad and rattling, only opens at the even numbered floors.

Opposite the lift are stairs to go up to the odd numbered floor.

But when Yasmin and her friends got into the lift, they met two lazy boys who were going to floor six – so that they could get out and climb down the stairs to floor five.

“We blamed the boys for the lift breaking.”

“We got to floor four as one of the boys had pressed that button when he got in the lift – the doors opened but the boys decided not to get out.

“They wanted to go up to floor six instead so that they would walk down the stairs instead of up. ”

“So the lift doors closed and we carried on going up.

“However, when we got to floor six the door only opened about 30cm before they jammed.”

This meant to be a security cam

“Us girls all shouted and tried to pull the doors open but we had no luck. We pressed the alarm button and a little while later got a response.

“When the security got to the lift, they very helpfully announced ‘if any of you start to panic, just let us know’.

“About half an hour after that we were told the engineer would arrive ‘within the hour’.

“Obviously we had our phones but had very little battery left.

“A total of one hour and a half and a lot of shouting and jerking later, they finally freed us from the lift.

This message resonates now more than ever

“The whole experience could have been a lot worse. I mean, I was with girls I’m friends with and the boys were friendly – we passed round smartiees and a spliff while chatting and listening to music.”

“I genuinely thought we’d made some life long friends but apparently not as when I saw one of the boys a few days later he did not recognize me.”

The other girls in the lift both agreed: “There are far better ways to spend a Friday night”.

“I guess I’ll just have to keep reminding myself as I’m climbing the nine flights that it’s a free workout – stairs are really good for your bum.”