A three-year-old boy has died after falling from the balcony of a 29th floor apartment building in New York City, police said.

Officers found the injured toddler lying on scaffolding at the third floor level after receiving a call just after 11am on Saturday.

The boy was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead, the authorities said.

“We believe the child exited through a window, but exactly how that occurred is under investigation at the time,” a police spokesman told the Associated Press.

New York City laws require that the owners of buildings with three of more apartments have to install window guards if a child aged 10 or under lives there.

They must also install these guards if a tenant or occupant requests that they do so.

It is not known whether any window guards were installed in this particular apartment in the Taino Towers residences in Harlem.

A police spokesman said the child’s death is under “active investigation” and that officers are speaking with two individuals who were inside the apartment when the boy fell.