Dr Norman Li expected to have lunch, but not to catch a small child as she fell from the second storey in the Velocity@Novena Square.

Dr Li and his wife, Ruth, were coming down the second floor escalator when they saw a girl of about six inching her way up on the outer ledge of the moving stairs.

By the time they got to the first floor, the little girl was three quarters of the way up.

Feeling uneasy, Dr Li positioned himself underneath in case she fell.

And fall she did, when she collided with a glass pane at the top of the escalator which prevented her from getting off the ledge.

'She landed in my arms, but then bounced off,' said Dr Li. 'She then hit the floor, and started crying.'

The whole time, a silent crowd had gathered near the escalator at the Velocity@Novena Square. There was a collective gasp when she fell.

As she slipped from his grasp and hit her head on the ground, her mother, who had been watching, rushed forward and picked up her crying child, said Dr Li.

'I told the mother that she should get her to see a doctor. She said something, picked up her child and left the shopping centre,' he said.

The crowd dispersed and the unidentified mother and daughter were gone by the time security guards got to the scene.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.