The child fell while her mother was nursing her on the balcony.
The terrifying sight of an infant sitting on the edge of a tin roof shocked residents of an apartment complex in Chennai's Avadi on Sunday, a viral video shows. The three-minute clip shows the dramatic rescue of the infant who fell from the fourth floor and landed on a sun-shade two storeys down.
In the clip, recorded from the balcony of a resident, eight-month-old Harin Magi is seen sitting on her hands and knees near the edge of a roof cover on the second floor of a building.
Horrified residents scream for help as three men attempt to climb up from a first floor window to grab the child, the video shows. A group of people hold a bedsheet open at the ground floor just below the window to catch her incase she falls. A mattress is placed underneath the bedsheet to ensure the infant is not hurt.
As the nail-biting clip progresses, the infant shuffles closer to the edge of the roof cover, her legs almost dangling in the air. The screams grow louder as a man climbs out of the first floor window and stands on the railing to reach to child. Two other men hold him steady as he stretches his arm, grabs the infant and passes her to a man inside the apartment.
Avadi Police Commissioner Shankar told NDTV that the incident occured at VGN Stafford, a residential community in Avadi, when the baby fell while her mother Ramya was nursing her on the balcony.
"She fell when the mother was nursing her. The video and the rescue are genuine. We have not received any formal complaint. The child is doing fine," he said.