Children 'watched as toddler plunged 30ft to his death from fourth floor window'

One of the youngsters ran back inside the tower block screaming: 'Mum there's a baby hanging out the window, it's going to fall.'

Shocked neighbours told how the 23-month-old boy, who died after sustaining massive head injuries, was being cared for by his grandfather.

Death plunge: The baby boy suffered massive head injuries after falling from this tower block on the Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham, north London

The child's mother was later spotted rushing around hysterically after residents found him in a pool of blood, it was claimed.

Locals said they raised the alarm and wrapped the boy in blankets after he fell in Tottenham, north London, on Friday.

Yasmine Begum, 36, who lives on the ground floor of the apartment block, told how she saw the baby fall after her children spotted him 'hanging'.

She said: 'I've been really disturbed by all this, I haven't been able to eat or sleep since it happened.

'The kids were playing on the patio outside and they came running in saying 'Mum there's a baby hanging out the window, it's going to fall'.

'I thought they were telling me porky pies to get me to come outside and play with them but then my older son came in saying 'there's a baby hanging out the window".

'I went outside, the window was wide open and I saw the baby fall, I actually saw him falling, I did not have the courage to look up at the window to see if there was anyone there I just focused on the baby.

'Then someone said to bring blankets and I was talking to the ambulance man and he was telling us what to do.'

Tragic: He died in the Royal London Hospital (above) a day later

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said her husband was one of the people who rushed out to help the toddler after the fall.

She said: 'There was absolute panic, someone ran and picked up the boy. On Thursday, the evening before it happened, the kids were out playing and I saw the little boy was at the same window he fell out from.

'My husband saw he was waving at the kids and they were waving back at him. I'm not sure if his parents were in the house but there was a woman in the window.

'I think she could have been a childminder because when she was looking out of the window, horrified, she said she didn't know the way down.'

The child, who has not been named but is believed to be of African origin, died in hospital from head injuries the next day.

Detectives investigating said they were keeping 'an open mind'.

Neighbour Estella Santana, 37, told of her 'shock' at seeing the boy before paramedics arrived.

Ms Santana said: 'I went to my window and I saw my neighbour, she was screaming, saying 'call an ambulance, the child is dying'.

'I did not see any relatives, just the neighbours who had come down. I saw the child bleeding from one ear, he had his eyes open and had a big bump on his head. It was really upsetting.'

The child was staying at the Broadwater Farm Estate which will forever be associated with rioting that resulted in the murder of Pc Keith Blakelock.

Angela Fordjour, 19, who also lives nearby, said the child's mother was not in the flat at the time of the incident and did not live on the estate.

She said: 'She arrived straight afterwards and was running around with her other child.

'Her dad lives in the flat but keeps himself to himself. I don't really know him. It's a big mystery.'

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said a post-mortem examination established his cause of death as 'massive head injuries'.

He added: 'He was taken by London Ambulance Service to Royal London Hospital with a fractured skull and was later transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he subsequently died.'

Detectives based in Stratford were investigating, he added.

A neighbour, who wished to be known only as Jennifer, said: 'I just saw the baby on the ground, everybody went outside. It was such a terrible, terrible thing.'

He said scaffolding erected outside the flat block was put up after the incident.

Flat 57, Croydon House, where it is believed the grandfather had been living for the past six months, was today visited by police officers but Scotland Yard would not confirm why.

A £33 million redevelopment programme has taken place on the estate since the riots 23 years ago, which were sparked after the death of resident Cynthia Jarrett, who suffered heart failure when officers burst into her home during a raid.