Woman decapitated by elevator after headphones became tangled: report

A woman in India was decapitated by an elevator while trying to detangle her headphones, which became stuck on part of the lift's outer structure, according to the Indian Express.

The victim, 48-year-old Sushila Vishwakarma, boarded the elevator on the ground floor of a plastic factory where she worked in Vadodara city around 8 a.m. on Monday when the incident took place, police told the paper.

Vishwakarma's body was later retrieved from the elevator on the third floor of the building, while her head was discovered on the ground floor. A music playlist was still reportedly running on her phone, which was found with her body.

Earphones found plugged into the victim's severed head led police to believe the accessory became snared on the collapsible grill door of the elevator, leading the woman to lean out of the structure to try and untangle them.

The elevator, which is without a roof, is typically used for carrying goods, according to Officer M N Saporiya of Bapod police station.

Investigators have ruled the victim's death as accidental and are currently working to figure out if the elevator was faulty.

"We have sent the body for a post mortem and we are investigating the possibilities of how her head got stuck, whether it was because of the headphones or something else," Bapod Police inspector TR Bamaniya told the Express.