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Mom dies as girl (2) survives five-storey fall

A 2-YEAR-OLD girl is in a critical but stable condition after she survived a five-storey plunge in Berea, Johannesburg, yesterday

Her mother died instantly after she jumped from the fifth floor with the child on her back.

Malume Mzimela, who was doing maintenance work at the Magaliesburg flat, said he met the woman at about 8am.

He said the woman, aged about 27, lived on the third floor.

"I saw her with the child on the fifth floor and asked her what she was doing and she said she was just chilling.

"She did not want to keep any eye contact with me and kept playing music on her phone, but I suspected there was something wrong with her," Mzimela said.

"At about 2pm a man called me saying there was a woman who was lying down on the pavement. I later realised that it was her. She was dead," Mzimela said.

He said the woman had been living in the flat for about two months.

Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesperson Esther Manzini said a man came to the nearby fire station to report the incident.

"When paramedics arrived, the woman was lying on pavement with the baby on her back.

"She suffered multiple fractions to her body and was declared dead on the scene," Manzini said.

"The child was bleeding from the mouth and also had bruises on her forehead.

"She was taken to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital in a stable condition," she said.

"We appeal to the public if they have social-related problems or need emotional support to call our chaplain service," Manzini said.

Police have opened an inquest docket.

 

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