CHENNAI: In a miraculous escape, an eight-month-old baby slipped from the balcony of the fifth floor and landed on a scooter before she hit the ground in Sowcarpet area on Monday,
According to the baby's relatives, she suffered a fracture in her left leg and is undergoing treatment at a private hospital. The baby fell from a height of about 30-feet. The incident took place on Monday morning at around 10.30 am, when the baby, identified as Jiniesha, was playing in the house while her mother and her two other aunts were busy in the kitchen preparing lunch.
"Jiniesha, crawled to one of the balcony doors which was open. The baby crawled up to the balcony and slipped off the balcony," said a relative of the victim.
It is a five-storey building and on the ground floor a furniture shop is situated. "The staff at the furniture shop and an auto-rickshaw who was standing opposite the building noticed the baby fall and rushed to her rescue," said a police officer.
"Jiniesha, her parents- Maypal and Neelam and their elder daughter who is three-and-half-year-old reside at Vishakapattinam. They had come to visit their relatives in Chennai a week ago. They resided in Sowcarpet Mint Street," added the relative.
The relative further added that the family was preoccupied and did not know that the baby was missing. "It was only after 20 minutes, the staff from the shop informed us that the baby had fallen off the balcony and was taken to the hospital and we immediately rushed to the hospital," the relative said.
The relative also pointed out that, since there are three more young children in the house, we had put a mesh in the balcony to avoid children from failing off but Jiniesha, managed to somehow make an opening in the corner and she slipped.
"Since the family were only guests the staff did not know the parents of the baby which delayed in informing the parents," the police officer said.