A FATHER involved in a custody battle has thrown his three-year-old son off the roof of a New York skyscraper before jumping to his death.

Police, responding to an emergency call reporting two jumpers from the 52-storey apartment building on the Upper West Side yesterday, found Dmitriy Kanarikov, 35, and the boy Kirill on the lower rooftops of two separate nearby buildings.

The boy was wearing still wearing his Christmas pyjamas. His mother had custody of him and the father, who had visitating rights, was supposed to hand him over to her at a police station on Sunday afternoon.

Luis Ortiz said was at the hospital when paramedics rushed the boy there and they were desperately trying to revive him.

He added: "You could tell he was slipping away. They tried to do the best they could. It was just heartbreaking. I have two kids of my own.

It is the second time this year a parent and child have been involved in a fatal plunge from a New York apartment building.