A young mother has told of the moment her three-year-old son fell from the window of their second floor flat.

Billy Pickard plunged 40ft on to a concrete floor outside his home in The Drive, Hove, while his mother, Lucy Aston, thought he was asleep.

It was only when she looked in to check he had drunk his bedtime milk that she realised he was not in his cot.

The 25-year-old said: "I could hear him crying. I panicked because it sounded distant. I thought he was under the cot and smothered. I moved the cot, then put my head to the window."

It was then she heard his cries from outside.

The Argus reported yesterday how Billy fell from a side window in the converted Victorian house and landed below ground level, on a path between the basement flat and the boundary wall.

His injuries were so serious he was not expected to survive.

After the accident on Wednesday night, the child was rushed to the Royal Sussex County Hospital before being taken to a specialist unit at King's College Hospital, London, in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Doctors say his condition, while serious, is no longer life-threatening.

Ms Aston and Billy's father, Damon Pickard, 30, were keeping a vigil at his bedside yesterday.

Speaking from the paediatric intensive care ward, Ms Aston told The Argus: "We didn't think Billy was going to pull through.

"We thought he was going to die."

He is now recovering from surgery on his broken hip and leg and is on a ventilator under heavy sedation.

It is expected that he will be required to wear a neck-brace and will remain in hospital while doctors monitor his progress.

Police are investigating how Billy fell from the window but say they are treating it as an accident.

Ms Aston believes her son climbed out of his cot and used the blind on the window to pull himself up.

She said: "The blind was closed and I think that was what he used as a grip. He pulled himself on to the bar of the travel cot and hoisted himself up monkey-crawling."

When she realised Billy had fallen, Ms Aston phoned for an ambulance, while her partner, Gene Savva, 26, ran to Billy's side.

A fire crew was called in to help lift Billy out of the fenced-off basement terrace.

An ambulance crew and five firefighters worked in torrential rain to get thechild to street level so he could be taken to hospital.

A tarpaulin cover was rigged up over the concrete area where he landed.

A 64-year-old man living in a block of flats next door described how he heard the child's cries and brought him a blanket from his flat.

He said: "It is shocking. I have got sympathy for the little boy. He was in a bad way."

He said the boy slipped in and out of consciousness as emergency services worked to get him out of the alley.

Passers-by spoke of their shock at the incident yesterday.

Peter Singh, 36, was staying at the Courtlands Hotel across the road.

He said: "We were watching from the window and saw the police arrive. It was terrible."

An 82-year-old neighbour said: "I was looking out of the window because there was such a hullabaloo.

"I had no idea that it was a little child that was hurt."