Bristol mum tells of baby injured in Harvey Nichols glass door accident

A Bristol mother has told how her seven-month-old baby was injured when a glass door shattered at the Harvey Nichols store in Cabot Circus yesterday.

His mother was leaving the department store and had pushed the 8ft door when a pane fell out of the frame and smashed on top of her sleeping son, cutting his face and head in a number of places.

The worst cut was close to his right eye.

His 19-year-old mum, who asked not to be named, also suffered cuts to her hand.

Mother and baby, from Bishopsworth, were taken by ambulance to Bristol Children's Hospital for treatment.

The mum, who went to Cabot Circus with her best friend, said: "It was our first visit to Harvey Nichols. We thought it would be a nice day out. We had been round part of the store and decided to go out.

"The door was half open. I pushed it once and couldn't open it further. I manoeuvred the pram as much as I could and pushed the door again and it smashed.

"My first reaction was 'oh my God, the baby'. I didn't realise my fingers were cut – all my attention was on the baby.

"Blood was pouring down his face. He was screaming and I was crying. A man was there. He got hold of my hand and put pressure on it."

The mother, her baby and friend were taken upstairs into a staff room to await the ambulance.

Staff contacted her mother-in-law, Carol Toogood, who drove from her home in Felton, near Bristol International Airport, to the store and then the hospital.

Mrs Toogood said: "When staff from Harvey Nichols rang me I could hear the baby in the background screaming.

"They said my grandson had been injured and that it was not serious, but they didn't tell me what had happened. I got to Bristol as fast as I could, but when I got to Harvey Nichols my grandson and daughter-in-law had been taken to hospital.

"He has a nasty cut by his eye and lots of other little cuts. There was so much glass in the pram."

The accident happened on the second day of trading at the flagship store, which opened to shoppers as part of the £500-million Cabot Circus shopping centre on Thursday.

Omar Ali, 23, a security guard at the nearby Hugo Boss store, watched the drama unfold.

He said: "The glass shattered everywhere and everyone gathered around the entrance. Someone shook the baby's blanket to get all the glass off. The ambulance was here straight away and the baby was taken away.

"I was told by another security guard that the baby had glass on its cheek and near its eyes. It's really shocking. I can't believe this has happened on the day after opening."

Another woman, who asked not to be named, said: "I just heard a crash and then a scream. Security guards came rushing over to stop people getting into the store. One of the shoppers was a doctor and she came over to help the baby."

A crowd of people gathered around the entrance to the store in Philadelphia Street following the accident, but staff directed customers to the shop's other entrance in Penn Street.

Harvey Nichols spokeswoman Joanna Jefferies said CCTV footage would be viewed to work out exactly how the accident happened.

She said: "We are investigating how it happened and we want to make sure it never happens again.

"The mother and baby were treated very quickly and the ambulance was on the scene very quickly."

The Health and Safety Executive is now investigating the incident.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police said: "The door was sealed off and the store was closed for a short while for checks of the other doors for safety reasons."