Toddler dies in tower block fall

The toddler fell from the balcony of this flat

A toddler has died after falling from the fourth floor of a tower block in north London, police have said.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said the 23-month-old boy fell from a balcony window in Tottenham on Friday and died the next day.

A post-mortem examination showed he died from massive head injuries.

The spokesman said the toddler fell about 33ft (10m) from Croydon House on the Broadwater Farm Estate in Gloucester Road.

He was taken by ambulance to the Royal London Hospital with a fractured skull and later transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital where he died.

I didn't hear anything except the screams from downstairs and next door after the baby had fallen Resident of Croydon House

Scaffolding was erected outside Croydon House after the incident over the weekend and detectives based in Stratford are leading the investigation.

The family is understood to have left the flat which has been secured from the outside.

One neighbour named Jennifer said: "I just saw the baby on the ground, everybody went outside. It was such a terrible, terrible thing.

"As a mother myself, and a childminder, it is really shocking.

"I did not know the family and had never been inside their flat."

Another resident of Croydon House, who did not want to be named, said: "I didn't hear anything except the screams from downstairs and next door after the baby had fallen."

Estella Santana, 37, another resident, said: "I went to my window and I saw my neighbour, she was screaming and she was holding her child and saying 'call an ambulance, the child is dying'.

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Toddler dies in tower block fall

"I did not see any relatives, just the neighbours who had come down.

"I saw the child bleeding from one ear. He had his eyes open and had a big bump on his head.

"It's really shocking, I am a mother myself and my daughter saw the baby through the window. It was really upsetting."

A £33m redevelopment programme recently took place on the estate, which is known as the place where rioting resulted in the murder of Pc Keith Blakelock.

The riots in 1985 were sparked when the community was angered by the death of resident Cynthia Jarrett.

She suffered heart failure when officers burst into her home during a police raid.