A toddler has reportedly been brutally beaten by a 10-year-old girl and thrown off a 25th floor balcony in China.
Incredibly, little Yuanyuan has apparently survived his horrific ordeal and is in hospital with fractures and a ruptured lung.
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Earlier reports said that the child, who is nearly two years old, had died.
Shocking CCTV footage showed Yuanyuan's mother accidentally leaving her child in an elevator when she was wheeling out his small green bike from the lift.
Seconds before the doors abruptly shut, the young girl is then seen getting in the elevator, before picking up the child before slamming him onto the floor twice.
As the little boy struggles to get up and escape the schoolgirl, she can be seen kicking and stomping on him.
The little boy's mother weeps
The horrifying footage is the last images of the child before the 10-year-old, dressed in a light-blue jacket and pink neck scarf, reportedly threw the child from a balcony.
The father of the 10-year-old girl has now said "communication problems" may have contributed to his daughters behaviour and that he and his wife's constant scolding of their daughter may have had a negative impact on her psychological wellbeing.
"Police investigations show that she may have kicked the toddler but did not purposely throw him down," the man, surnamed Li, said in local reports. "The boy may have fallen down the building because he was in shock."
Mr Li said his daughter loved children and animals and that she told him that she had hit the child because he was making faces at her and wasn't friendly. He says his daughter has had a complete mental breakdown since the incident.
He has compensated Yuanyuan's family with 58,000 yuan ($10,500) towards the baby's medical bills.