A woman survived with multiple injuries after heavy snow helped to cushion her fall when she accidentally plunged from the balcony of her 18th-floor apartment in the Chinese capital, state media said on Thursday, DPA reported.
The unidentified woman narrowly avoided death after falling 60 metres from the balcony as she was airing a quilt on Tuesday, the China Daily newspaper quoted state radio as saying.
She survived because she landed in shrubbery and the deep snow that had accumulated since Beijing experienced its heaviest snowfall for nearly 60 years last weekend.
A local hospital was treating the woman for multiple fractures to her spinal cord, the report said.
Beijing recorded a 38-year low temperature of minus 16.7 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, as heavy snow continued to affect many areas of northern, eastern and central China.