In a distressing moment captured on the camera, a two-year-old girl can be seen dangling by her cheekbones from metal railings outside the window of her fifth-floor home.
The toddler, from the city of Nanning situated in China’s southern Guangxi Province, is said to have been left sleeping while her dad worked and her mother ran errands at a pharmacy.
The little girl after awakening up went searching for her mother by climbing out of the nearest open window on Sunday.
She was spotted by neighbours after she fell through the metal bars of the fifth-floor caged balcony and was only saved when her head became trapped.
Neighbours can be heard crying for help. One resident, Mr Li, said he called for the girl’s family, but no one appeared to be home.
Mr Li said: ‘Me and another young man arrived at the front door, but it was locked. I asked him what we should do, and we both agreed we should break into the home.
‘When we saw the girl, she wasn’t dangling by her neck. The bars were stuck around her cheekbones.
‘She was very close to slipping through. Someone else arrived and picked her up by her arms.’
Footage of the rescue shows the girl being plucked up by a neighbour who is standing on the security bars above her.
The rescue took all but 10 minutes, witnesses reported. The mother returned from the pharmacy after her daughter had been rescued.
She apologised to her neighbours for the distress the incident had caused, and also thanked them for their life-saving heroics.
The girl suffered minor injuries to her face during the ordeal, but she did not require further treatment, reports said.
Leaving minors unattended at home is a punishable offence in China, especially in cases resulting in death or serious injury.
However, the girl’s mother is not expected to be charged in this case.
