Incredible as it might seem, a mother left her toddler in a parked car for over an hour with an outside temperature of over 40 degrees whilst she went shopping.

This happened yesterday in Almeria. The child was rushed to hospital before released into the custody of her father; the mother has been remanded in custody.

The Policía Local were alerted to the plight of the 2-year old by a group of youngsters – the car was parked in a parking area near the old railway station in the city of Almeria. The car wasn’t even parked in the shade, as there is none there.

A patrol was immediately despatched and the policemen found that the car with its windows closed up and the child in obvious distress strapped into a baby seat.

After failing to gain access to the vehicle by other means, they broke a side window, and not a moment too soon, as the child was close to passing out. They gave the child water and tried to calm her down as she was understandably upset. The police even poured cool water over her body to bring her temperature down.

An ambulance was summoned and the toddler was taken to the Complejo Hospitalario de Torrecárdenas, suffering from heatstroke from temperatures well over 40 degrees inside the closed car.

Meanwhile, back at the car, the police waited for the parent to turn up. When the mother did, she was accompanied by the child’s grandmother. The parent swore that she had only left her there just ten minutes. However, her parking ticket showed that an hour and 15 had passed since she parked it.

She was immediately arrested and taken to the police station.

This kind of incident is far from being infrequent in Almería; at the beginning of this month a 49-year-old father was sentenced to 15-months’ imprisonment for leaving his 3-year-old daughter inside a parked car, as well. He had left the car in the sun in order to use the Emergency Department of Hospital Torrecárdenas

In this case the girl remained in the car from 11.30h to 13.15h, strapped into a baby seat, until she was discovered by a hospital worker.

(News: Metropolitan Area, Almeria, Andalucia)