A 23-year-old mother who ‘mistakenly’ dropped her crying daughter to her death while dangling her over a balcony has been arrested by police.
It was gathered that Anna Ruzankina, the mother, was arrested on the suspicion of murder after she allegedly dropped her screaming daughter off a balcony and the girl died.
Ruzankina dangled her three-year-old daughter Anastasia off the balcony as punishment for crying, police in Russia say.
In a harrowing video, too graphic to be shared, Anastasia was heard begging her mother as she was dangled over the balcony.
The little Anastasia tearfully screamed to her mom, “Mama, I am scared. I am scared, scared, scared…..I am scared.”
Shortly after, she fell 60ft to her death.
The footage captures the final moment of her fall before she hit the ground.
CCTV footage captures Ruzankina as she retrieved the dead girl and holding her lifeless body in the lift back up to the family’s sixth-floor flat in Saratov, Life News reports.
Local media reports said the mother had been holding the screaming girl by her T-shirt over the balcony edge but her shirt tore and she fell.
A male passer-by seen on the video said he heard a child’s loud screams from an upper floor.’
He added, “And suddenly I heard a dull sound of falling. The screams stopped.
“When I turned around, I saw a little girl covered in blood lying on the asphalt. I ran to call the emergency services. I was so shocked.
Neighbours said the mother had claimed the child climbed over the balcony herself.
“I told her she would fall,” the mother was heard saying to neighbours.
Ruzankina was detained on suspicion of murdering a minor and she faces up to 21 years in jail if convicted.
Reacting to the incident, the Russian Investigative Committee said, “Ruzankina dropped her young daughter, born in 2018, from the balcony.”