A 16-year-old Battersea schoolgirl is lucky to be alive after surviving a 30ft fall on a trip to Venice.

Su Cangatin-Ripley, a pupil at Emanuel School, Battersea Rise, fell from her hotel window while on a school outing suffering head, chest and stomach injuries.

She had been staying at the Hotel Cristallo.

Her fall was partly broken when she bounced off a canvas canopy directly beneath the window ledge preventing her from suffering even worse injuries and most likely saving her life.

Her hospital has said she is no longer on the critical list and has been moved from intensive care to a normal ward.

Her doctors believe her head and chest injuries are superficial and she is breathing on her own.

Her distraught parents are understood to have flown out to be by their daughter's bedside.

The teen arrived at the hotel last week with 36 other pupils and five teachers from the fee-paying school.

The pupils, all members of the school's choir, had taken the trip to sing in five church concerts and were due to return home tomorrow.