As Typhoon Noul barrelled into southern China on Sunday with winds reaching 160km/h (99mph), violent gusts ripped a cot from indoors and flipped it over several metres away, sending the child inside flying to the ground.
Hongxing News, a Chinese media outlet, reported that a six-year-old girl lying in her cot in the southern city of Shenzhen was blown from inside a building onto the grass verge outside.
Footage released by Hongxing showed a ground-floor grocery shop being battered by the gale, while the owners and two of their three children tried to take cover inside.
The eldest daughter was blown away by the winds but walked back to the shop unharmed, the report said.
“The strong wind came so suddenly and a gust blew the door open. As there were two children inside, we did not have time to look after the elder one at that moment,” the report quoted the father as saying.
“I did not expect that [after she was blown out], she would run back on her own. It is scary now that I think about it,” the father said.