MUNICH (GN): A two-year-old girl had a miraculous escape when she fell from a fourth floor balcony, bounced off a canvas canopy and landed unhurt on grass.

Little Maria Kohler scrambled on to the balcony to watch passing trains, inMunich,Germany, when she slipped and fell. A doctor at the local hospital where she was taken after the accident said: “She must have a very special guardian angel because she didn’t even have a bruise or a scratch.”

Mother Melanie Kohler, 32, said: “I once accidentally dropped an apple off the balcony and it smashed to pieces. Yet my daughter survived unhurt - it really is a miracle.”

She had gone out to work leaving her husband Ray Kohler, 45, and daughter at home when she got a call saying there had been an accident and that Maria was in hospital. She said: “I rushed there fearing the worst and not believing that there was no urgency and when I walked in she was sitting up in bed and told me: “I’m sorry mummy - I won’t do it again.”

Police spokesperson Sven Müller said: “This canopy has caught Maria and slowed down her fall.”