Moscow airport child: Toddler Yazdan in coma after Sheremetyevo attack is breathing on his own again

Shocking CCTV footage of the attack at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport on June 23 shows the innocent youngster leaning against a suitcase. Then, without warning, a shaven-headed man scoops up the boy, raises him above his head and then slams him into the floor.

After a brief spasm, the boy, reportedly named Yazdan, becomes motionless as one witness picks him up in his arms to keep him safe.

Bizarrely, the boy's attacker slips on a pair of sunglasses and shuffles along the airport floor on his backside as the clip ends. Local media reports say the attacker was high on drugs and told the police he is a schizophrenia patient.

He has been identified as a 31-year-old Belarus national, Vladimir Vitikov, and has been remanded in custody until August 25.

Local media reports say he has refused to apologise to the boy's parents.

The boy's father, Mohammed Shahim, gave a harrowing interview to local media on June 27 as he waited for his son to recover from a coma at Moscow's L.M. Roshal Children's Clinical Centre.

He said: "He's twitching now and he was twitching then, at the airport. He's still twitching his legs and arms now. He doesn't open his eyes, he doesn't talk, nothing."

But now little Yazdan has reportedly opened his eye and can now breathe on his own.

He is still in intensive care, with the dad saying on June 30: "Two hours ago, he was disconnected from the ventilator. Doctors say that he will remain in intensive care until tomorrow.

"He regained consciousness, opened his eyes, but is not saying anything yet. I am here every second, I am with him 24/7."

The hospital's chief physician, Tatyana Shapovalenko, said that "the child was extubated, meaning that the boy is now breathing on his own with a high flow of oxygen."

The child's dad said of Vitikov, a married dad of two: "He is not a man, he is Satan, he is Shaitan. He mocked us: me, my wife."

Story: NewsX