On Sunday, 9 August 2026, a dramatic incident occurred on Sybiraków Street in Łomża, narrowly avoiding tragedy. A four-year-old girl ended up on the outside of a balcony on the fifth floor of an apartment block. For a moment she hung on, holding the railing, then lost her strength and fell.
Passers-by and neighbours reacted below. In a split second, several men (according to four witnesses) stretched a blanket across the terrace of a ground-floor flat. The girl fell right onto it. The blanket cushioned the fall, although the force of the impact made the child bounce slightly and touch the ground. This prevented the worst.
The emergency call was received at 14:14. Three fire brigade units were sent to the scene, but by the time firefighters arrived, the child was already under medical care. The girl was taken to a hospital in Białystok. She was conscious, and tests revealed only general bruising. Her condition was described as good.
Police established that only the child’s mother was in the flat at the time. The woman was asleep. Witnesses knocked on the door for a long time before she opened it, still groggy from sleep. A test showed 0.7 per mille of alcohol in her blood. Officers are working out how the child got past the railing. The mother faces criminal liability for exposing a child to a direct risk of loss of life or serious bodily harm.
Surveillance footage from the housing cooperative and witness videos quickly flooded social media. They show the moment the men hurriedly unfold the blanket and catch the falling girl. A TVN24 report and other recordings are circulating online, sparking a wave of comments praising the rescuers and expressing outrage at the mother’s behaviour.
One of the participants in the rescue, Mr Grzegorz, later recounted that these were literally the last seconds. The girl was already hanging only by her little hands, then she let go and fell. The quick reaction of passers-by saved her life.
