Monday Feb 4 19:07 AEDT
By ninemsn staff and wires
A two-year-old child thrown from the window of a burning building by his frantic parents survived the 12m fall after he was caught by police officers waiting below.
The toddler was flung from the third floor of a building in the German city of Ludwigshafen as emergency workers crept along an outside ledge towards his trapped family, The Daily Mail reported.
The child was one of two hurled to safety. Nine other people, including five children, were killed in the blaze. A further 24 were taken to hospital, two of whom were in life-threatening condition, and it was possible that more bodies would be found at the property, police said.
It is not known whether the child's parents survived the blaze.
The building is so badly damaged it is in danger of collapse.
Ludwigshafen fire chief Peter Friedrich told The Times the building's wooden staircase that might have allowed people to escape from the higher floors "was a pile of ashes".
"People were escaping through the windows before we arrived at the scene," he said.
It was unclear what had caused the fire, police said, adding that 52 people, mostly Turkish citizens, were registered as living at the property.
The number of fatalities could have been higher had a group of police, firemen and other emergency service personnel not been gathered for a carnival nearby.
