Boy, 4, Survives 5-Storey Fall From Hong Kong Apartment

A four-year-old Nepalese boy miraculously survived a fall from a fifth floor apartment in Hong Kong after he crawled through the window of the bathroom and plunged to the ground, hitting antennas on the way.

The boy, whose mother was unaware of the accident until police officers banged on the door, was being treated for bone fractures at nearby Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Beijing.

The boy's 27-year-old mother, who had been alone with the child at their home, was later arrested on suspicion of ill-treatment or neglect of a child, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

Witnesses were quoted as saying that they saw the boy hitting antennas on the way down as he fell onto a parked car and rolled onto the street.

"All of a sudden I heard a loud bang," said a vegetable seller who saw the child fall yesterday.

"The child didn't make a sound for a few minutes," she said.

"He was moving. He managed to turn around by himself but he couldn't stand," a passer-by, who called the police, said.

The child, who landed face down, was conscious when paramedics assessed his injuries before taking him to hospital.

Police officers were seen accompanying the child's elder brother back to their home to assist with the investigation.