Baby thrown from 4-storey building on fire, caught by cop

LUDWIGSHAFEN, GERMANY: Trapped by smoke, the parents of a nine-month-old baby girl faced an excruciating dilemma: if they threw her out of the window, would she be caught four storeys below?

The split-second decision paid off: Onur fell safely into the arms of a policeman below. The parents also survived, although the mother was still in a hospital Tuesday, two days after the blaze that killed nine people, including five children.

The drama at a building in southwestern Germany was captured in a series of photographs of the baby in freefall as a group of anguished adults looked on.

The building was home to Turkish immigrants, and Turkey's PM expressed concern about possible arson. A girl told Germany's RTL television that she saw a man setting fire to something in the building.

With the staircase destroyed by flames, adults also jumped for their lives while others formed human ladders to help save people trapped inside, police and rescue workers said. Children from lower floors were handed to rescue workers atop an ambulance.

Some who jumped missed the nets laid out by police.