A man has been hailed as a hero after catching a young girl whose mother threw her from the window of Grenfell Tower as it burned.
The four-year-old is safe and uninjured after a brave man called Pat, who lives in a low-rise block next to the tower, caught her “like a rugby ball tucked in his chest” from the fifth floor.
However, witnesses fear the worst for her mother, as the flat was engulfed in flames seconds after the small child was thrown out.
Resident Kadelia Woods, 20, told The Sun: “The mum had the little girl’s head wrapped in a towel and was holding her out of the window and was screaming for help. The fire was raging like crazy. It was about 2am and the flat was filled with smoke.
“My neighbour Pat, who’s in his 40s, was calling up to her shouting, ‘Drop her, don’t worry I’ll catch her’. The mum was screaming, ‘No, no, I can’t, I can’t’.
“Pat kept reassuring her and then the girl just dropped. Everyone’s hearts stopped as she fell. We were all fearing the worst.
“But Pat managed to catch her like a rugby ball tucked in his chest and he just clung on to her.
“She had a pink dressing gown on and she was just screaming hysterically for her mum. The paramedics were trying to put an oxygen mask on her but she was just screaming and screaming. I don’t think her mum survived. When I looked up again the whole floor was on fire.”
It is thought Pat got injured while helping people from the tower and was treated in hospital.
Community leaders told the tabloid they thought the mother of the rescued child died in the fire.
