Nappy saves baby's life

An 18-month old toddler's life was saved by a disposable nappy which broke his fall from a third-floor apartment window.

Caua Felipe Massaneiro survived the 10-metre fall because his nappy got caught on a security spike in the concrete wall around his apartment building in the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife.

For a moment the boy dangled from the spike, then "the diaper opened and the baby fell to the ground, but at a much slower speed," a police officer said. "The diaper obviously lessened the impact of the fall and saved the baby's life."

Miraculously, the toddler did not suffer any serious injuries although he remained in hospital being treated for minor fractures.

"Police have opened an investigation to determine how the toddler fell out the window and "if parental negligence was one of the causes," said the police officer.

Caua's father, 23-year-old Alexandre Cesar Massaneiro, told a local newspaper that his son had climbed onto a sofa underneath the window he fell from - "something he had never done before."

"It wasn't the diaper that saved him," Mr Massaneiro added. "It was God."