His Grandma Went Out for Groceries. He Went Over the Ledge

A 3-year-old boy clings to the edge of a sixth-floor balcony. Then his hands give out and, over one agonizing second, he plummets toward the ground. Yet it was a happy ending thanks to onlookers in Chongqing, China, who spotted the boy dangling from an apartment building Monday and rushed forward with a blanket to catch him. "I thought about … [trying to] catch him with my bare hands, but that would not have worked," CNN quotes a property management employee as saying. Video shows residents, security guards, and sanitation workers holding the blanket taut as the boy drops.

"I held out the blanket along with others, all the while keeping my eyes on the child," the employee says, per CNN. "My only thought was to keep him safe." The boy landed directly in the blanket after clinging to the balcony edge for some four minutes. He was uninjured but was taken to a hospital as a precaution. The boy had reportedly climbed over the balcony railing after waking up from a nap, per Mediaite. State broadcaster CCTV reported he'd been left alone in the apartment while his grandmother went grocery shopping, per NBC News. It's unclear whether charges will be filed. (More China stories.)