THE heartbroken mother of a toddler who died falling from an upstairs window says she left him alone for just four minutes when a "catastrophic accident" occurred.

Her two-year-old son was reportedly found lying in the street with a serious head injury after the horror fall in Liverpool a week ago.

The mum was visiting a friend's house with her son when she left him playing in an upper-floor toy room with another child living at the property on Fairburn Road.

She said that she left her little boy alone for just a few minutes while she went downstairs to help another child at the house build a gingerbread house.

The distraught mother told the Liverpool Echo: "In those three to four minutes I thought the two children were left in a safe environment in the toy room.

"What I didn't know was the lock on the window was broken."

Family members said the heartbreaking decision to switch off his life support machine was taken last night.

The toddler's mum said that she had gone over to her friend's house to look after children while the homeowner went to Asda.

Before she left the upstairs toy room, she said her son was on a rocking horse and the window in the room was tightly shut.

She added: "We are not drug taking people or alcoholics - we live respectable lives and it's a nice house."

The accident is believed to have happened around mid-afternoon on Saturday, November 17.

The victim was rushed to Alder Hey hospital by ambulance and was initially described by police as being in "a critical condition".

A spokesman for Merseyside Police confirmed the tragic death with the local paper this morning.