As a police officer edged along the ledge to try to help the people trapped inside, the parents attempt to save their youngster in the most radical way.

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Escape: One person edges along a ledge, top left, as the child (ringed) was thrown from the smoke-engulfed flats in Ludwigshafen, southern Germany. It is feared the blaze was started by neo-Nazis

The child was seen falling through the smoke...to be caught safely in the hands of waiting policemen nearly 40 feet below.

But at least nine other people - five of them children - were not so lucky and perished in the fire which devastated the old house where 52 people lived in the southern city of Ludwigshafen.

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Terrifying sight: The young baby hurtles towards the ground from the third-floor window

A further 60 people were injured in the fire, some of them seriously, which broke out at 4.30pm yesterday afternoon.

At least two more people are expected to die from their burns. Many Turkish families lived in the block, prompting fears that neo-Nazis may have torched it.

Police have formed a special commission to determine the cause of the blaze.

The toddler seen was one of two thrown to safety from the four storey building into the arms of policemen.

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Agonising: The family watch helplessly and hope the two-year-old is caught safely

It remains unclear whether their parents escaped the flames and smoke.

Cushions and pillows were piled into the streets below as people cut off from the burning stairwell were urged to jump.

At one stage firemen smashed in through a second floor window to rescue a four-year-old child totally black from smoke. He was treated in hospital and will survive. The fire broke out in the first floor of the four-storey building on Danzigplatz.

The flats were filled with Sunday afternoon visitors calling on friends and relations who wanted a view of a carnival street festival attended by 250,000 people in the old centre of the city. "Anyone caught in that backdraft was incinerated in seconds."

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Rescue: A boy is handed to safety as scared residents, mostly immigrants, make their way onto the balconies. It is feared the arson attack was carried out by neo-Nazis

Flames burst from windows and within half an hour the roof had caved in on the inhabitants trapped inside.

"The old wooden stairwell acted like a chimmney, drawing flames two metres in height upwards like a blast furnace," said a fire brigade spokesman.

Police were forced to evacuate old houses on either side of the fire for fear that the flames would spread.

By this morning the building was a blackened, gutted shell in danger of collapse.

Eva Lohse, the mayor of Ludwigshafen, stood before the smoking ruins last night with tears streaming down her face.

Police said they fear finding more bodies trapped inside