Mother throws children out of fourth-floor window to dodge apartment fire in Russia

A DESPERATE Russian mum was forced to make the confronting decision to throw her children out of a window as a fire took hold of her high-rise apartment.

Mila Aksakova, 36, threw her two children out of a fourth floor window as fire engulfed her home in the village of Energetic, located in the northwest of the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan.

Quick-thinking neighbours pulled together some bedsheets, as Vanya, four, and Natalya, 13, came hurtling towards the street. Luckily, the children survived.

The escape was captured on camera from a block of flats across the road — you can watch it in the video above.

The mother decided to wait for firefighters to arrive, believing that the sheets would not hold her weight. She was overcome but later rescued by firefighters and treated for smoke inhalation.

Fire brigade spokesman Damian Bulgakov, 43, told reporters the fire started in the ground floor flat where a disabled woman had been living.

The blaze had cut off the front exit, forcing the mum to use the window instead.

"The problem for the family was that by the time they noticed the fire it had cut off their opportunity to escape through the front door, and that meant they had to use the windows,” he said.

"With smoke filling the flat the mother made a decision to at least get her kids out before it was too late.”

The cause of the fire is being investigated.