An incident occurred at the Romanian Ministry of Labor’s headquarters on Friday, when an elevator carrying five people fell from the ground floor to the basement.

Fortunately, the elevator's emergency breaks functioned, attenuating the fall, reports local Antena 3. None of the five people were injured and they refused to go to the hospital.

The elevator seems to have had a technical problem and will most likely be changed. The Ministry of Labor operates in an old building in Bucharest.

A government document presented by local Profit.ro in mid-May revealed that 70% of the elevators installed in buildings and institutions in Romania had outlived their maximum life expectancy of 12 years, being manufactured between 1970-1985. Moreover, they don’t meet any of the of the new security requirements imposed at European level.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com