'Nightmare' incident in an elevator is being compared to a scene in Final Destination

Viral CCTV footage of a terrifying incident in a lift in Russia is being compared to a scene from Final Destination 2.

Security cameras inside the lift spotted the moment it stopped on a floor to let one man out and another in - except it barely gave the man a second to get in before it continued going up.

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The footage has amassed millions of views on social media, and shocked viewers couldn't help but draw comparisons with the 2003 horror, in which Nora Carpenter suffers a grisly death in an elevator.

On Twitter, one person wrote: "This reminds me of the Final Destination scene when that lady got decapitated by the elevator."

Another added: "SECONDS away from being a part of the Final Destination franchise."

While a third said: "This is why watching the Final Destination movies should be part of every school's curriculum."

Indeed, it was a good job the bloke in Russia was able to wriggle out of the lift.

With most of his body inside the lift he was faced with a split-second decision to either commit himself to trying to get into the lift or get away from the snapping mechanical jaws of doom.

He picked the latter option and elected to get back, pulling his body out of the rapidly rising lift and managing to duck his head out of the way of danger just in the nick of time.

If he hadn't got out of the way his head would likely have been chopped off by the rising lift, which showed no signs of stopping for the human being stuck in the way.

In most lifts there's a safety feature that stops it from moving if the doors are still open, and prevents the doors from closing if there's something in the way – like a person. Not this one, apparently.

All he could do was sit and wait for help while worrying that the cables might snap or he could run out of air.

When it comes down to it, a lift is essentially a big box in a hole suspended by a few bits of cable – the cables are very strong, of course, but if something goes wrong that's not much of a comfort.

While some scary episodes are down to a faulty lift we don't help ourselves at times either, as one woman who accidentally dropped her car down a lift shaft can attest.

She'd mistaken the lift for a free parking spot and drove in, her car falling 10 metres and landing upside down.