IT WHAT HAS been described as a “miracle” an 18-month-baby boy has survived a six-storey drop from an apartment in Paris.

The toddler had been left unsupervised with his four-year-old sister, when he somehow fell from the apartment and bounced off an awning below, a Parisian police officer told the daily Le Parisien. In a stroke of remarkable luck, a passing doctor spotted the baby and raced to catch him as he sprang from the awning.

He did not suffer any injuries, according to reports from the BBC.

The dramatic scene took place on the corner of the Cours de Vincennes and the Rue des Pyrenees late on Monday morning.

The doctor who caught the child was identified as Philippe Benseniot by France Info – and said that the rescue was pure luck. “I was there at the right time,” he told France Info. “I’m happy for the little boy.”

The owner of the cafe told French media that it was also lucky that the awning had been up: “I usually close it to stop it catching fire as people tend to throw their cigarette butts onto it,” he told the television station i-tele.

The circumstances surrounding the accident are not yet clear.