'We can't move': Great-grandmother saves great-grandson from ceiling collapse in Melbourne

A great-grandmother has saved her great-grandson from being crushed by a ceiling that collapsed on top of them at her Melbourne home.

Nicky Panagiotidis, 88, was looking after two-year-old Harvey at her Ascot Vale home when the ceiling suddenly gave way late yesterday afternoon.

"When she heard the roof crack she rolled over off the couch and sort of shielded my son under her chest," Harvey's mother Nicole Brown said.

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"I just know that motherly instinct that she has went through her to be a hero - she is actually a hero for him," Brown said.

Panagiotidis called her daughter, Julie Polimos, and said "the ceiling is on top of me and we can't move".

Emergency services arrived quickly and found the pair with minimal injuries.

Panagiotidis walked to the ambulance and had bruising on her back and shoulders.

She was discharged from the hospital today.

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Polimos said her mother was a very strong woman.

"She doesn't buy takeaways, she always cooks home meals... Greek Mediterranean meals," Polimos said.

"It was the unluckiest situation, with the luckiest outcome possible and we're so grateful to my grandmother."

The family believes a water leak may have caused the collapse after they noticed cracks and sagging a week ago.

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