It was a gesture of sheer desperation. A father, his home engulfed by flames, dropped his baby from the top floor of his apartment block.

The baby – who fell four storeys – was caught by a fireman and was said last night to be doing well. But nine people, including five children and a pregnant woman, were killed when the blaze ripped through the house in Ludwigshafen, an industrial city in southwest Germany.

It was not known yesterday whether the baby’s parents were among the survivors.

The heat was so intense that the wooden staircase that could have carried many of the inhabitants to safety simply collapsed. “It was just a pile of ashes,” said Peter Friedrich, fire chief of Ludwigshafen. “People were escaping through the windows before we arrived at the scene.”

The century-old house was full of partygoers celebrating a carnival that is held throughout Catholic parts of Germany. The carnival procession, with huge floats, cheerleaders and a brass band had passed by outside. The children in the house had gathered sweets thrown into the streets by the revellers and returned home to continue the party.

Hours later adults were jumping out of the windows, screaming as their clothes burned. Behind them, smoke billowed, choking those still trapped.

One witness, Rene Werse, described passing the building 20 minutes after the alarm had been raised. “At first I didn’t notice anything, no smoke or flames, no smell of burning – then I saw the people crowding on to the balconies. They were screaming, smashing the window panes. “Suddenly there was smoke on the roof. You couldn’t really grasp the drama from the outside, only from the people themselves – sheer panic was written all over their faces.”

By the time the fire brigade arrived ten minutes later, flames were licking the house and people were starting to jump. Two children found cowering behind a couch and holding wet cloths in front of their mouths were saved. But television news showed a charred baby being pulled out of the house and lowered down a fireman’s ladder.

More than 60 people were injured in the blaze, some of them seriously with smoke poisoning, multiple burns and fractures. “The people who jumped from the roof hit the asphalt with a loud thud,” a rescue worker said. Some were so confused that they missed entirely the safety tarpaulin being held out by the firemen.

The Mayor of Ludwigshafen, Eva Lohse, fought back tears as she described the tragedy, the worst fire to hit the city since the Second World War. “The terrible images of children being brought out of the flames will remain with us for a long time,” she said. “We are deeply shocked.”

Two Turkish families lived in the house but according to estimates yesterday up to 50 people, Turks and Germans, were registered there. The victims were taken to several outlying hospitals and families were separated, so even late last night some children were unsure whether their parents had survived.

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