MOTHER HAD TO THROW HER BABY GIRL OFF A STOREY BUILDING IN SOUTH AFRICA BECAUSE LOOTERS BURNT THE BUILDING

A young mother from Durban threw her two-year-old daughter from a burning building, luckily she landed unhurt.

Naledi Manyoni said she had no choice but to release her grip on her daughter and hope that she was caught by people waiting below. They kept screaming "throw her," she said.

Manyoni and her fiance lived on the 16th floor of building set ablaze by looters at ground level amid widespread violence in parts of South Africa.

They were staying on the 16th floor of the apartment block when they noticed smoke rising.

The lift was not working because of the fire, so Ms. Manyoni frantically ran down the stairs with her baby.

However, she was unable to get to the ground floor as the area was blocked.

She says she managed to squeeze through to a balcony area on the second floor where she appealed to passers-by for help.

"All I could think was to make sure my baby lived," she said.

Firefighters arrived at the scene about 20 minutes after people in the crowd had started rescuing other residents with ladders - which is when Ms. Manyoni was reunited with her daughter.

She told the BBC they managed to return to the flat at about midnight.

BBC