He was caught by passers-by under the high-rise building – “I could not escape alone and leave her behind,” he said.
A two-year-old girl survived unharmed as her mother, trying to escape with her daughter from a burning high-rise building in the South African city of Durban, threw her into a group of people below.
The mother, 26-year-old Naledi Magnioni, told Reuters on Wednesday that she was on the 16th floor when the fire broke out on Tuesday. She ran out of the building down the stairs with her daughter.
Magnion managed to reach a window sill over the street and threw the toddler at a group of people below as passersby shouted in panic.
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“After I threw her, I held my head in shock, but they caught her,” said the 26-year-old mother outside the building, holding her daughter on her shoulders. “She kept saying, ‘Mom, you threw me down there.’ She was terrified.”
What was important was for my daughter to escape. I could not escape alone and leave her behind, “ said Magnion as the girl, dressed in a red coat and hood, murmured and clapped her hands.
The two of them were standing on the street in front of burned and looted shops. South Africa is experiencing one of the worst riots in the post-apartheid era, sparked by the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma last week.
The demonstrations, which erupted on Saturday in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s hometown, quickly escalated into mass looting, arson and riots in Durban and Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial hubs.
At least 72 people have lost their lives in the violent incidents.
