Heart-stopping moment firefighter abseils from a 16-storey flat to save a little girl after she got stuck outside a balcony 130ft above the ground
- The little girl in China climbed out of the window when her mother was out
- Footage shows her standing on a tiny ledge while clinging onto the railing
- A firefighter rappelled down the building’s façade before grabbing the child
A little girl who was left at home alone has dodged death after she got trapped outside a balcony more than 40 metres (130 feet) above the ground.
The five-year-old Chinese child was standing on a tiny ledge and clinging onto the window frame of her 13th floor home when firefighters arrived at the scene.
A rescuer abseiled from a flat two storeys above before grabbing the child and pushing her back to safety. It is believed that she was not hurt.
Footage released by the fire-fighting authority of Yunnan, China, shows the five-year-old girl standing on a tiny ledge when a rescuer carefully rappels down from a neighbour’s apartment
The incident took place today at nearly 1pm in Kunming, the capital of southern China’s Yunnan Province, according to the provincial fire-fighting department.
Footage released by the authority shows the girl dangerously stuck on the façade of the high-rise residential building.
A firefighter carefully lowered himself down from a neighbour’s home with the help of a harness and a colleague, who held the protective gear from above.
The courageous rescuer slowly moved along the windows and reached the girl about 10 minutes later.
He then picked up the child, lifted her and put her back to her apartment.
The child reportedly climbed out of the balcony after being left at home alone by her mother who was picking up deliveries. Her mother said she had not expected her daughter to do so
Shocked neighbours, who had gathered to watch the rescue effort, applauded to thank the brave fireman.
The girl had been left at home on her own by her mother, who had gone downstairs to pick up deliveries, firefighters told local news site Yunnan.cn.
The family live on the 13th floor and each storey is typically three metres (9.8 feet) high in China. Therefore, the girl was stranded about 137 metres above the ground.
Her mother said she had not expected that her daughter would climb out of the window. She promised to look after the girl better in the future.