A three-year-old boy from the Ukrainian city of Kharkov fell eight storeys but survived because a huge heap of snow broke his fall, the interior ministry said.

The child apparently opened a window of his room, leaned out and fell when his mother left him unattended. "The child fell into a huge snowdrift under the window. He survived and was rushed to the medical emergency hospital. Doctors said his condition is grave, but stable," the ministry said.

Several cases of lucky survivors have been reported in the past years. In 2008, a window cleaner plummeted 47 storeys from the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper and survived.

In 2009, a 29-year-old Chinese woman miraculously escaped death after she jumped off the 27th floor. In 2010, a 10-year-old Chinese boy who fell 20 storeys from an apartment window survived after landing on a parked car.

Last year, a 22-year-old Australian woman survived an unsuccessful bungee jump from a 111-metre bridge. She suffered only bruises and a broken collar bone when her safety cord snapped, sending her into the crocodile-infested waters of the Zambezi river.