2yr old boy 'plays' on 100ft balcony ledge for over five minutes

 

A toddler came within inches of plummeting 100 feet to his death after climbing on to a high-rise flat balcony as his mother slept inside. 

Dramatic footage showed the two-year-old crawling along, and sitting on, the balcony's ledge eight storeys up, while horrified passers-by looked on.

One terrified onlooker was so concerned that she filmed the boy nonchalantly peering down and dangling his legs over the drop.

Neighbour Debbie Green said: 'I was talking to my son's girlfriend on our front door when she looked up behind me and said: 'there's a baby up there on the balcony.'

'I turned round and saw the kid up there just playing on the balcony with no protection - I thought he was going to fall, I was sure he was going to die.

'The police arrived after about six minutes but it felt like hours - I had to go back in the house to try and calm down because I couldn't watch. 

 

'I have never felt so scared in all my life, it was horrendous. 
'I couldn't believe someone would let their child do that.
'But they have a chair on the balcony that he was able to use to climb up onto the ledge.'

Debbie's husband John, added: 'After the police went round the father just calmly walked onto the balcony and moved the chair They didn't seem that phased by it all.
'I'm amazed the kid was able to keep his balance up there. 
'One of our neighbours said he wanted to go and do something, but we realised if he had then the child might have leant to look at us and fallen - so we waited for the police to come.
'There are loads of people who would like to have kids and then there are these people who let their children play on a balcony and ignore them.
'He's obviously been up there several times before because he was incredibly careful to climb down.'
John said he felt like he was about to film a child's death.

Officers arrived at the block of flats in Wyken, in Coventry, seven minutes later to find the mother and a man asleep inside.
They said she claimed the boy was safe because of the delicate pigeon netting over the balcony.
When approached, the mother claimed she had in fact been in the kitchen, not asleep, while the boy played outside.
She said the doors onto the veranda don't shut properly allowing the boy easy access to the outside world. 
Claiming she was 'shocked' when police told her what her son had been doing, she told The Sun: 'I won’t let him out of my sight now. I’d like to thank the neighbours over the way who saw him'

Police are taking no further action.

Culled from Daily Mail