The child fell from a two-storey high balcony at a housing estate in Pembroke yesterday. Photo: Jason Borg

A one-year old child was in a critical condition after she fell from a two-storey high balcony at a housing estate in Pembroke yesterday, although she initially stood up afterwards.

The toddler hit a cobbled area in front of a block of flats in Pietru D’Armenia Street.

A police inspector who was among the first on the scene said the child managed to stand up and she started crying.

She was not bleeding, he said, but had a big bruise on her head.

“As I held the child, I just started praying fervently to God at that moment – what else can you do? This is worst kind of thing to witness. She’s just a baby,” he said, still visibly emotional.

His colleague said: “It’s already a miracle she survived this height. Let’s all pray that she’ll make it, God willing.”

Nobody was sure how the accident happened, although some neighbours said that it could be the toddler climbed on to the wicker chair outside on the balcony and toppled over.

Neighbours from nearby blocks told Times of Malta that at around 5.30pm they heard sudden screams, shrieks for help and wailing of “Madonna! Madonna!”

It’s already a miracle she survived this height. Let’s all pray she’ll make it

“It was the mother,” said one tearful neighbour who lives in the block of flats opposite. “I couldn’t see anything from my balcony, but I started screaming for people to call an ambulance,” she said.

At the woman’s cry, scores of neighbours rushed out of their flats to offer help.

“Some were holding the mother, others were tending to the child,” said another neighbour, still trembling from shock.

“We are a very close community here,” she murmured as she kept making the sign of the Cross.

The parents, they said, have two other older children.

The grandparents of the child arrived soon after the ambulance left. “We don’t know what happened, we don’t know anything,” the grandfather told this newspaper.

I can’t understand what could have happened

“I am not sure I feel alive myself at the moment – I cannot understand what could have happened,” the child’s grandmother said.

The little girl was taken to hospital in an ambulance where she was found to be in a critical condition due to internal injuries.

A magisterial inquiry is being conducted and the police are investigating.