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Video news outlet Daxiang News said the baby was caught safely in the improvised net and the two women were rescued by firefighters who arrived minutes later.
A neighbour, whose name was not given in the report, said the baby was just 40 days old.
The clearly desperate mother holds her 40-day-old child outside the window of her burning third-floor flat just seconds before letting the infant go. Photo: Weibo
“Some time after the incident, when I recalled the mother throwing down her baby, it still horrified me,” the neighbour said, adding: “The smoke was too dense. They couldn’t find any way to leave.”
Many people on China’s social media platforms sympathised with the mother’s dilemma, though some criticised her actions.
“How helpless she must have felt when she let go of her baby,” one person wrote.
“The mother’s action was too risky!” another commenter said. “What if the baby was not caught? Why not use a basket to hold the baby and a long rope to lower the basket?”
One online observer said the infant would have “definitely died” from smoke inhalation and added that the mother’s decision was correct.
“She is the baby’s mother. She loves her baby more than any of you. If there was another choice, would she have done what she did?” said a commenter.
Thick smoke billows from the burning building in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang. Photo: Weibo
“It’s good that all people came to offer their help. The scene warmed my heart,” another said.
News stories about people narrowly escaping from fires often trend on mainland social media.
Last month, an 11-year-old boy in eastern Anhui province attracted widespread praise when he led his mother to safety from a fire in their flat.
At his suggestion, the boy and his mother covered their mouths and noses with wet towels and crouched to minimise their exposure to the smoke as they walked down the stairs.
But not all of these stories ended happily.
In the eastern province of Jiangsu, two children were caught by neighbours in a quilt after their mother threw them from their third-floor home to escape a fire.
She was not so lucky, missing the quilt in her own attempt and suffering serious head injuries, from which she later died.
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