Toddler 'seen hanging from 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. 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: "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 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."

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". 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.

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